A review by johndiconsiglio
Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee

3.0

Nobel Laureate Coetzee’s odd 2003 novel (novel?) is ostensibly a portrait of a prickly Australian writer told through award speeches, cruise ship presentations & guest lectures. (An acknowledgements page seemingly indicates Coetzee shoehorned his own essays into the text.) Lotsa esoteric chatter, often “ill-gauged, ill-argued,” as her son notes—but not before we’ve suffered through a 20-page diatribe on the Holocaust & animal rights. It comes alive when breaking its formal structure & exposing the inherent cruelty of writers—“large cats that pause as they eviscerate their victim &, across the torn-open belly, give you a cold yellow stare.”