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This is the second book I've read featuring a bicycle accident since I had a long talk with a friend two months ago about his father's death resulting from a bicycle accident. As a cyclist this makes me even more aware that you can never be too careful while riding.
Other than that this is was a s-l-o-w and utterly forgetable novel. I had to make myself finish it with the hope that it would all pull together. It never did. Perhaps it would have been better as a novella, leaving out the Elizath Co ...more
Other than that this is was a s-l-o-w and utterly forgetable novel. I had to make myself finish it with the hope that it would all pull together. It never did. Perhaps it would have been better as a novella, leaving out the Elizath Co ...more
Paul Rayment, a man in the late autumn of his years, is a very deliberate man. The novel begins with his cycling accident and the amputation of his leg. He hires a Croatian nurse Marijana for his medical attention and household needs. As might be imagined, he becomes attracted to her, but as in typical of Coetzee, the story is much more complicated than that, as we learn when the famed fictional writer Elizabeth Costello from his earlier work arrives. Essentially, this novel is about a character
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I'm having a spate of fictional malaise, but I just couldn't get into this story. The writing was what one would expect from Coetzee, but I didn't have a lot of empathy for any of the characters, didn't know what, if any, point was being made, and didn't much care in the end.
I'm going to see what other people thought about it, but I felt a bit let down. ...more
I'm going to see what other people thought about it, but I felt a bit let down. ...more
i never quite got into the characters nor did i ever quite come to grips with the mismatched realism/surrealism. and i didn't actually like having elizabeth costello back, although i loved the eponymous book. that said, coetzee's gift for dialog, scene, and prose is all here and is compelling. something i'm glad to have read, but will probably never re-read.
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Sep 24, 2007
Meg
marked it as to-read
May 17, 2009
Jessica
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Nov 23, 2009
Maria
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Feb 08, 2010
Christian
marked it as tilføjet-til-bibliotek
Feb 15, 2013
nawir nawir
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Apr 12, 2013
Kirstie
marked it as to-read
