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Youth (Scenes from Provincial Life #2)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 2,434 ratings · 145 reviews

Youth's narrator, a student in 1950s South Africa, has long been plotting an escape from his native country. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, and transform it into art. Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor ro...more

Paperback, 176 pages

Published February 6th 2003 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2002)

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Oct 11, 2011 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who want a book to fit into their navel

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list and danielle23

Shelves: 1001-books

From the book cover:
Set against the background of the 1960's - Sharpeville and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam - Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness, isolated and adrift, turning in on itself. J.M Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity.

Hmmm.

When I first started reading this book my first thought was, Dawsons Creek, with aspergers set in the 1960's. To much youthful angst and introverted navel gazing highlighted by...more

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May 13, 2011 Velvetink rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa-continent, australia-new-zealand, uk, autobiography-memoir, 2011-read

"Youth" is a portrait of an artist as a young man - struggling to find his way.
Maybe I will just start with a quote;

"At 18 he might have been a poet. Now he is not a poet, not a writer, not an artist. He is a computer programmer, a 24year old computer programmer in a world where there are (yet) no 30 year old computer programmers. At 31 he is too old to be a programmer: one turns oneself into something else - some kind of businessman - or shoots oneself" Coetzee.

Darn. I have 7 foolscap pages of...more

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May 04, 2008 Kenneth E. Harrison, Jr. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

Part 2 of Coetzee's "fictionalized" memoirs, also written in the third-person.

I read this straight off in one afternoon, in a couple of long and delicious sittings, Satie playing in the background, cat in my lap. These scenes of Coetzee's formative years will interest writers and artists alike, but I'm especially taken with Coetzee's willingness to tell on himself as he recounts his trying to find his way in the world, a way into art, and a way to be a decent freaking human being.

One of my favor...more

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Jun 11, 2007 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

By page 115 of this slim fictional memoir, Coetzee had convinced me that he's a beautiful writer. He manages to avoid corniness, even though he's describing the inner narrative of an ex-pat wannabe poet (recipe for sappy disaster). There are some ethical musings in here which are quite good and I like the whole construct of an author describing a fictional character's interaction with other authors. It achieves a distance between Coetzee and his pathetic, miserable hero that is compelling. There...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Nirmal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a small beautiful book by Coetzzee. I had read it in the past and had enjoyed it a lot. Recently I reread it. It was quite engrossing even during the second read.

Reason I seem to enjoy this book is due to its quiet and understated grace and charm, its growing up narrator with his peculiarities: an Afrikaner (dutch s. African), detached from community and family not in unhealthy way, his career starting as a programmer (1 yr at ibm and another at intl. computers) , autodidact , his awkwa...more This is a small beautiful book by Coetzzee. I had read it in the past and had enjoyed it a lot. Recently I reread it. It was quite engrossing even during the second read.

Reason I seem to enjoy this book is due to its quiet and understated grace and charm, its growing up narrator with his peculiarities: an Afrikaner (dutch s. African), detached from community and family not in unhealthy way, his career starting as a programmer (1 yr at ibm and another at intl. computers) , autodidact , his awkward social misfitting and above all his sincere and brilliant observations and writing.

I guess I could relate to some aspects of this narrator with my own growing up and confusions.

Narrator is 18 to 20 something in Cape Town. He has grown up in S. Africa only but he is unusual in many ways. His immediate goal is to escape the Apartheid driven S. African regime. He is generally aloof and loner and wants to escape his relatives, family , country and surroundings. There is an affair with an older and emotionally unstable woman Jacqueline. After initial few days, he finds Jacqueline’s presence oppressive and intrusive. One day she reads his diary and finds out his real thoughts about her. She goes crazy and leaves him (he doesn’t seem to mind that). Though Jacqueline comes back a few times on her own. He is too shy/coward to tell his true feeling or to tell her to get away.

Soon he reaches London and joins his friend Paul there. He is sharing a bed-sitter with Paul. He has few small affairs but mostly he finds it intrusive and prefers to live his detached life. One of these affairs is a plump and young Austrian au pair. On her last day in London she comes to his place and sleeps with him. In the morning she is leaving unwillingly but our hero feigns sleep and is relieved to see that she has left.

One of his cousin Else has come to London and her friend maria. One night he and Maria are alone and they end-up making love. Maria was virgin. He realizes this by noticing pool of blood on the bed sheets and his and her clothes. He panics and quickly removes the sheets and turns over the mattress. In the morning he wants her to leave before the matron is awake. However he finds Maria chatting with the matron in the kitchen. He disapproves that and is generally cold towards Maria. She leaves. In few days time he receives a letter from his cousin Else who chides him for his brute and horrible behavior towards Maria.

He searched for a job and rejects initial few because these ones are not based in London. Eventually he gets a job offer from IBM London as programmer. He takes the offer. He somehow spends a year in IBM but he is despaired and feels intimidated by IBM’s culture and people(clever but not intellectual). He leaves IBM and resumes his aloof life. However soon the visa notice arrives. So he has to find a new job quickly if he wants to continue to live in UK. He lands up a job with Int. Comps but location is not in London. Though he doesn’t want to leave London but he accepts it anyway. He finds culture at intl. comps easier to manage and less intimidating than IBM. He enjoys his work.

There is an Indian guy Ganapathi who seems to come late or many a times does not turn up at all. But no one seems to be complaining against ganapathi while he is scared to death to finish his work properly etc. It seems Ganapathi is a prized possession , an MS (comp. sc.) from US. He and Ganapathi are the two foreigners. They lunch together usually. Ganapathi is disparaging about Intl. comps and UK and says that US is the real thing. He also suggests John to leave UK and go to US. In between Ganapathi stops coming to office and no one seems to be bothering.

He takes it upon himself and goes to see him. After several knocks Ganapathi opens the door. Ganapathi does not respond about john’s queries, it seems he wants him to leave. House is stinking badly. Ganapathi is living on bananas and it’s the banana peels which are creating the stink. He is also living shabbily. John decides to invite him for lunch at his next day and leaves.

Next day John has prepared the lunch at home but there is no sign of Ganapathi as he never turns up. Next day in the office Ganapathi has come but he mentions nothing about the lunch. John was thinking to remind him but decides against it. He is puzzled about Ganapathi’s behavior. Maybe he thinks it unclean to eat at a westerners place OR maybe he thinks that it wasn’t a serious invitation just perfunctory formality.

Around this time he thinks that he is at crossroads and to take a dive towards his real calling i.e. literature. Book ends here.

A little marvel of a book. It seems to me that I will be re-reading it every few years’ gap.
(less)

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Mar 11, 2013 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Coetzee’s Youth is about aSouth African Mathematics student, who flees his politically instable countryto work as a computer programmer in the United Kingdom of the 1950s. Hisambitions there is to follow his idles TS Eliot and Ezra pound, and become apoet, in England, which was the home of most of the greatest poets of theEnglish language. Instead this work is dull, and England has a greater need for his services as an employee, than for his artistic talent. Poems will not increase the country’...more

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May 27, 2012 Christy S rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I believe it was Mary Knott, librarian and friend, who recommended this author to me. In my usual pickiness over fiction, I probably would not have had the joy of reading it had it not been one of my only options to trade for at a hostal we passed through.

I am not often a reader of fiction, and so it is sometimes hard for me to describe how I experience it (do I say this in all of my reviews of fiction?). This book is about the 1960s, London, South Africa, and work. But Coetzee has primarily wri...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Isaac VR rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Una de las novelas más ñoñas jamás escritas. Los escritores suelen hacerlo en sus memorias, pero tiene sentido: no todos los escritores son Burroughs ni todos se pasaron la mitad de su vida enajenados con una bolsa de correspondencia al hombro. Las confesiones de juventud (ficticias o reales, no me importa) suelen ser una ñoñería, sin embargo esto no significa que no estén escritas con una prosa bien lograda, como de una persona que ha trabajado en su voz narrativa (tiene un Nobel, coño).
Juventu...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Sean de la Rosa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This second instalment in Coetzees autobiography tells of a young man making his way to London as a novice computer programmer. The moments of extreme loneliness, uncertainty and poor spirit experienced made me reminisce a lot about my own sojourning in Europe a few years ago. The book provides some interesting reflections on apartheid in South Africa from a foreigners perspective.

I am amazed at the ease of Coetzees prose. The honesty and clarity of his writing combined with a strong South Afri...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Justin Evans rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

You'd think that there'd be more action in the second part of a kind-of-auto biography, and in one sense there is more action here than in Boyhood. He has various jobs, he moves overseas, he has depressing sex with a great number of women while convincing himself that he's a complete failure with women. But for all that it's less affecting, as if the need to tell the 'story' over-rides what made Boyhood great. There's still lots going on... perhaps it's just harder to have anything but contempt...more

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Jan 27, 2012 kissmyshades rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, african, biographical, novel-novella

Just reread it. The ending was pretty devastating. The whole book was really. I don't generally care for coming-of-age stories but Coetzee is such a fascinating individual to me (maybe because I'm a fellow uber-rational, emotional cripple)...

"She writes every week but he does not write every week in return. That would be too much like
reciprocation."

"He has a horror of spilling mere emotion on to the page. Once it has begun to spill out he would not know how to stop it. It would be like severing...more Just reread it. The ending was pretty devastating. The whole book was really. I don't generally care for coming-of-age stories but Coetzee is such a fascinating individual to me (maybe because I'm a fellow uber-rational, emotional cripple)...

"She writes every week but he does not write every week in return. That would be too much like
reciprocation."

"He has a horror of spilling mere emotion on to the page. Once it has begun to spill out he would not know how to stop it. It would be like severing an artery and watching one's lifeblood gush out."

"They might as well get married, he and Astrid, then spend the rest of their lives looking after each other like invalids."

"He is chagrined to see how well the reality principle operates, how, under the prod of loneliness, the boy with spots settles for the girl with the dull hair and the heavy legs, how everyone, no matter how unlikely, finds, in the end, a partner."

"Without descending into the depths one cannot be an artist. But what exactly are the depths? He had thought that trudging down icy streets, his heart numb with loneliness, was the depths. But perhaps the real depths are different, and come in unexpected form: in a flare-up of nastiness against a girl in the early hours of the morning, for instance. Perhaps the depths that he has wanted to plumb have been within him all the time, closed up in his chest: depths of coldness, callousness, caddishness."

"Sorry: the word comes heavily out of his mouth, like a stone. Does a single word of indeterminate class count as speech? Has what occurred between himself and the old man been an instance of human contact, or is it better described as mere social interaction, like the touching of feelers between ants? To the old man, certainly, it was nothing. All day long the old man stands there with his stacks of papers, muttering angrily to himself; he is always waiting for a chance to abuse some passer-by. Whereas in his own case the memory of that single words will persist for weeks, perhaps for the rest of his life. Bumping into people, saying “Sorry!”, getting abused: a ruse, a cheap way of forcing a conversation. How to trick loneliness."

"What is wrong with him is that he is not prepared to fail."(less)

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Nov 04, 2009 Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the most autobigraphical book i related to on so many levels, however reluctant i am to admit that. Its a rather bleak book with such raw honesty and rhetoric questions. This is my first book by Coetzee, and i absolutely love it, his way of exploring so much striking truth in this short sentences, going straight into the consciousness of the 19 year old in London. I find myself enjoying it and finishing it fast, probably the fastest i have ever finished a book. The pretentiousness of an...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Coetzee, in my humble opinion, is a master of the written word. "Youth" is a continuation of his autobiographical account of his life as a twenty-something, transplanted to London from South Africa, fumbling his way through everyday life and trying to find his way as told through the third person. The anxiety he feels as a young man whose reality and fantasy of what his life is and how it plays out is almost painful. This is a clear picture of a young man adrift in a foreign land, coming of age...more

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Nov 24, 2008 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is not as good as Disgrace or Michael K. Probably because the subject matter of Youth, a young guy trying to pursue the artist pursuit of writing while maintaining a "normal" office job, is not as shocking or provocative as that of Deisgrace and Michael K. Despite the fact Youth doesn't feel like a "real" (award winning) Coetzee, it is a great book. It is definitely a light read but I really enjoyed it. There were moments when it felt like the story cut close to the bone - my bones. At...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Connie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: rws_atw, rws_spring12

Coetzee is one of my favourite writers: his prose is a scalpel dissecting false sentiments, and his stance towards his creations is of an icy, scientific compassion.
"Youth" was an short read, about his fictionalized journey to become a poet, struggling with the realities of life as they make his inner conviction slip. Yet, everything he experiences is measured against what he assumes will make a great poet or against the lives of poets he admires, however much that may mislead him. He is haunted...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Hillevi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ett liv.

det finns få romaner om programmerare. jag undrar vad t.ex e.w. skulle tycka om den här boken? man måste kanske någon gång i livet varit aspirerande poet för att uppskatta den..? coetzee är ju ändå humanist, inte ingenjör. (väl..? "disgrace" antydde det.)

jag undrar också hur ens säker man måste vara på sin kod & hur man skriver den, när det enda sättet att köra den är på det här sättet:

"trots beteckningen 'datalaboratorium' finns det ingen dator i anläggningen. för att testköra progr...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Robert Wechsler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bio-autobio, british-lit

The protagonist (Coetzee as a young man?) is a monster, a more repulsive and pitiful character than even Rousseau in his Confessions, although not as extravagantly so. As with all Coetzee’s work, the style is matter-of-fact.

This young man, who spends most of the book in London, is a cad to women, a poor worker, a sad, lonely misfit who cares little about apartheid or other political issues, who reads but does not seem to know what to do with literature, who writes poorly and infrequently, who ex...more

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Jun 25, 2010 UChicagoLaw added it · review of another edition

Shelves: faculty-recommendations

The middle novel in the semi-autobiographical trilogy, which has now culminated in the recent release of Summertime (shortlisted for the 2009 Mann-Booker prize). The book is far from perfect (certainly the narrator is not), but for me it brings together so much of what is familiar – scenes from Cape Town where I was born, from London, and the parts of it I know so well. I also feel a special interest in the attempt by Coetzee explore pre- and post-apartheid white South African identity, given my...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Maha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My least favorite kind of fiction: the journey into the self without any intention of emerging with a broader message. Perhaps it's because I'm still married to the Victorian novels that are massive social critiques couched in domestic narratives, but I find this kind of psychological, post-Proust fiction deeply unsatisfying. Especially since Coetzee [remember Barbarians and Disgrace?:] has it in him to do more, to take this portrait of a young student and make it "about" something: options in t...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Graham Botha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Coetzee has an excellent command of language and is normally a pleasure to read. This book, however, is a morbid journey through the depths of a maladjusted South African ex patriot living in England. The narrator gives an introspective account of his journey from youth to manhood in which he claims to be on a quest to become an artist. A goal he never achieves. In the process he wallows miserably in job after job and accommodation after accommodation, never accomplishing nor enjoying anything....more

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Dec 04, 2012 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book as a 4 . But that's because I thought it was hilarious a parody. It's a story of an angsty young man, moving to London and trying to be an artist by living the lifestyle but lacking the talent. But it's supposed to be serious? Insightful and dark? If it were parody I'd agree with the former. The main character (kind of Coetzee) is ridiculous. So methodical in his failure that it's hilarious. Really, really funny. I've never really got Coetzee, I've not yet understood w...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Satyam Sai rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was like 'The Portrait of an artist as a young man' set in London and language unlike Joyce very simple yet very sharp. Allegedly an autobiographical work which makes it all the more important.The book deals with the agonies of an artist in modern London gripped in the rushes of ongoing Cold War. And to add on the misery,neither his poetry blooms nor his morbid love affairs in the midst of confused national identities. A prose which on the face of it looks very pessimistic and dark but if rea...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Peggy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novella concerns John, a young man who has graduated from the University of Cape Town with a degree in Mathematics. John is unhappy with the treatment of the black population of South Africa. He also fears the polictical unrest of his native country, and so, moves to England. The story follows John through his youthful dreams of a successful career as a writer. To survive, he takes a dreary job with IBM. He attempts to fashion his life in the style of his favorite writers, but soon finds he...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Susan J. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Seriously, what's not to like about a grubby portrait of an artist as a young man? That he lived on cheese and bananas and was self-admittedly crap at romance and more generally personality is just plain satisfying. Undoubtedly it is owing to the dramatic irony that, yes, this scrubmuffin will one day win the Nobel Prize. But it is still wonderful seeing him masterfully portray himself as a convincingly worthless bum with no ostensible talent working his way through a souless day-job. Like the b...more

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Jan 12, 2011 nogaboga rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A book where nothing happens, yet I kept reading with fascination. The idea is that nothing is happening - none of John's dreams or aspirations come to life, and he finds himself at the exact opposite of where he wanted to be. Is it because of his flawed character?
It is interesting to read a book which discloses the thoughts of a person who, I quickly realized, I would absolutely dislike in real life. Yet, while reading the book I kept rooting for him. In that, he gave me an Ignatius-like feeli...more

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Jul 08, 2011 mstan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, african, non-fiction, src-summer-2011

I really liked Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life but Coetzee's fictionalised older consciousness can be fairly irritating, even if it is realistic.

In short: he leaves Capetown for England, works as a computer programmer, tries to start a few meaningful sexual relationships with women he cannot connect with, and broods upon the nature of art and being an artist. Most of the time, he is lonely, so lonely that it stifles the reader too.

Man, Coetzee can be depressing.

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Aug 24, 2012 Katie Grainger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Youth is the second part of the ‘fictionalised’ biography which sees our narrator travelling from South Africa to London to start a new life. His aim is to become a poet and find love; however things don’t go quite according to plan.

Having read a number of Coetzee novels you know that they are not going to be a laugh a minute and this is no exception. Our narrator is aimless and slips further and further into a dark place as the novel progresses. With Coetzee you often know what you are going t...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Tom Ireland rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This second volume of Coetzee's fictionalised autobiography tells of a South African student with dreams of writing who moves to London full of grand ideas. He is swiftly disappointed. As he is forced into mind-numbing jobs to survive he slowly gets further and further from his dreams. What makes the novel all the more poignant is the way in which its narrator refuses to ever let go of his ambitions, always rationalising how his present situation is facilitating his future greatness.

Read the res...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Vilis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ketzē pieeja autobiogrāfijai ir krietni citāda kā Petijai Smitai. Te nav nekādas romantizēšanas, nekādas pagātnes glorifikācijas. Tieši otrādi: jaunietis Ketzē vispirms ir smieklīgs dunduks, tad kļūst par grūti izturamu dunduku un visbeidzot neizprotamā veidā, nemainoties uzvedībai, pamanās radīt simpātijas un klusu traģēdijas apziņu. Dzimto Keiptaunu viņš pamet 22 gadu vecumā, dodoties uz Londonu kļūt par ģeniālu dzejnieku un atrast mūža mīlestību. Patiesībā darbos un pelēkajās Londonas dienās...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Moisés rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literatura-británica, literatura-siglo-xxi, en-mi-biblioteca, recien-comprados, narrativa-cotemporanea

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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About J.M. Coetzee

John Maxwell Coetzee is an author and academic from South Africa. He is now an Australian citizen and lives in South Australia.
A novelist and literary critic as well as a translator, Coetzee has won the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Quotes from Youth

“But he cannot see a connection between the end of yearning and the end of poetry. Is that what growing up amounts to: growing out of yearning, of passion, of all intensities of the soul?” — 13 people liked it

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Youth (Scenes from Provincial Life #2)

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