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A review by andrew_russell
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
2.0
This tells the story of John Coetzee from the interesting perspective of several interviews with family and acquaintances he made during his lifetime. It also has a number of extracts from his notes at the end. It is fictional and I did find that what held it up was the unique aforementioned approach to writing a fiction book. It is not a novel, for it has no central plot. The characters only descriptions are in the imagination of the reader and arise from the interviews with others, rather than first hand.
While at first this possesses some novelty value,there are several characteristics of John Coetzee which are common in all the interviews. Once these are known, they are repeated, albeit through the means of descriptions given by several different individuals. While this could be seen as a strength in the book, I found it a weakness. It left me feeling that Coetzee was two dimensional and I could summon up neither sympathy or distaste for his character, due to a lack of concern on my part (due to boredom by the end of the book) as well as lack of information provided.
However, in spite of being rather dull the book had a strange hold over me and I found it exceptionally difficult to put down. I wasn't sure whether to give it 2 or 3 stars and in the end decided on 2 as, while the premise of the book was interesting, the book itself was not.
While at first this possesses some novelty value,there are several characteristics of John Coetzee which are common in all the interviews. Once these are known, they are repeated, albeit through the means of descriptions given by several different individuals. While this could be seen as a strength in the book, I found it a weakness. It left me feeling that Coetzee was two dimensional and I could summon up neither sympathy or distaste for his character, due to a lack of concern on my part (due to boredom by the end of the book) as well as lack of information provided.
However, in spite of being rather dull the book had a strange hold over me and I found it exceptionally difficult to put down. I wasn't sure whether to give it 2 or 3 stars and in the end decided on 2 as, while the premise of the book was interesting, the book itself was not.