J. M. Coetzee

i was not sure what to expect from this book, but definitely not what happened on the farm of David's daughter. Where I thought his fall from honor at the university was the main theme, the attack on Lucy and himself put it in the shade immediately. The almost lyrical, stoic prose of Davids words and the brutality shown in the action happening were miles apart yet seemed to work together perfectly, having an even deeper effect than any open outrage may have had. I had a hard time following David with his thoughts about Byron and the play he intended on writing on the poet's life, but the rest of the book was really impressive.

Dem Autor gelingt hier eine packende wie aufschlussreiche Analyse der südafrikanischen Gesellschaft der fünfziger Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts mit all ihren Widersprüchen und Abgründen. Durch seine Kindheitserinnerungen schafft er für den Leser eine sehr persönliche Nähe zu den geschilderten Vorgängen, die einen stets neugierig auf die nächsten Seiten macht. Meiner Meinung nach eine sehr gelungene, kluge Lektüre.

Susan Barton is shipwrecked and meets Crusoe and his slave Friday on an island. They live there for a very long time and never before a person reached this paradise.

But it's a strange paradise. Friday can't speak, because he has no tongue. Crusoe taught him a few words so Friday is able to do easy jobs like searching for wood. But they can't carry on daily conversations. Most of the time they say nothing. Sometimes Friday goes away and neither Crusoe nor Susan know what he is doing all the time.

One day miraculously a ship lands at their island and saves the three, but Crusoe dies during the crossing to England. Susan can't believe yet what happend on the island during the last year, so she decides to tell her story to an author called Mr. Foe. Unfortunately Mr. Foe doesn't want to tell the story as it happend. Her second problem is that, a woman with a slave prompts questions...

It was a nice story but didn't enthusiasticed me. On the other hand I can't wait to read "Robinson Crusoe".