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A review by flijn
The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee
2.0
A man and a boy arrive in a new land. They don't remember much from their past; the man's mission is to find the boy a mother.
The new land is both hospitable and indifferent. The people are friendly, they get a place to stay, food, and a job. But it feels like a land of ghosts, where everyone drifts through 'life', nothing changes, and nothing is questioned.
I honestly don't know what to make if this book. I did not like it, and I feel like I don't understand it. But it is well-written, the converstations between the child and the man are intriguing , and the setting offers many possibilities of reflection on what it means to live, to belong, to adapt.
Most people would agree that living is not the same as surviving, that having to fight for physical safety, food and shelter is a sub-human existence. But when these things are provided, what does it take to really 'live'? Don't we need our story of who we are, to be recocgnized and understood by others, just as much as we need bread and water?
In the end, I like the questions this book poses way more than I enjoyed reading it.
The new land is both hospitable and indifferent. The people are friendly, they get a place to stay, food, and a job. But it feels like a land of ghosts, where everyone drifts through 'life', nothing changes, and nothing is questioned.
I honestly don't know what to make if this book. I did not like it, and I feel like I don't understand it. But it is well-written, the converstations between the child and the man are intriguing , and the setting offers many possibilities of reflection on what it means to live, to belong, to adapt.
Most people would agree that living is not the same as surviving, that having to fight for physical safety, food and shelter is a sub-human existence. But when these things are provided, what does it take to really 'live'? Don't we need our story of who we are, to be recocgnized and understood by others, just as much as we need bread and water?
In the end, I like the questions this book poses way more than I enjoyed reading it.