Childhood of Jesus - General (No Spoilers) (Mar 2018)

[LindaJ^]

Hi All,

We will have only two folders for this book - General and Whole Book. Spoilers only allowed in the Whole Book thread, which I will set up in a day or so.

In this General thread, we will focus on Coetzee, his work in general, and reviews/interviews specifically about The Childhood of Jesus.

Here are some reviews of the book:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/boo... (written by Joyce Carol Oates);
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/b...
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/m...
https://newrepublic.com/article/11465...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ixaf... (video)

Here are a couple of generic interviews that Coetzee has agreed to:
http://www.satyamag.com/may04/coetzee...
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/int...
http://buffalonews.com/2002/10/13/a-r...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hqxq...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikj_9... (Nobel Prize speech);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbNT6...

I found the materials above, which I read after the reading the book and writing my review, to be fascinating. They caused me to think about the book entirely differently. For example, I found myself wondering if the book was dystopian, whether it was allegory, and whether it was funny. Did any of those occur to you?

[Hugh]

Thanks Linda. I intend to participate in this one - I have a copy of the book and will probably start it in the next few days. I have read quite a lot of Coetzee, but I got a bit disillusioned by his very introspective Slow Man/Diary of a Bad Year period and have not read anything he has written since then - since this one seems to be more fictional it might appeal to me more.

[Lily]

LindaJ^ wrote: "For example, I found myself wondering if the book was dystopian, whether it was allegory, and whether it was funny. Did any of those occur to you?..."

(Grin.) So reading Coetzee is going to be no different than it was the last time I read him ....

Thanks for all the reviews. I'll probably wait for awhile at least before reading them. Thanks for moderating this.

I was thinking we were reading The Schooldays of Jesus , so I have both checked out. But have barely cracked either.

[Hugh]

I suspect we can extend this discussion to cover Schooldays - we have certainly done this before when discussing the first book in a series.

[Lily]

Hugh wrote: "I suspect we can extend this discussion to cover Schooldays - we have certainly done this before when discussing the first book in a series."

(Chuckling.) Not sure we will want to do so?

(I did just skim some of the Goodreads reviews. Maybe I should have before voting... I was looking for LindaJ^'s, but didn't find it. Maybe you will give us a link, Linda?)

[Hugh]

Lily wrote: "Not sure we will want to do so?"
I probably won't get round to Schooldays this month because I have to read 2666 and would like to finish the Republic of Consciousness shortlist before the prize is announced.

[LindaJ^]

Lily, my review is at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... I've read Disgrace and Slow Man. I liked them better than this one, perhaps because I found it easier to see a theme. Now that I've read the reviews, I am more likely to read The Schooldays of Jesus as I am thinking it might help me to better understand Childhood.

[Marc]

The reviews I read made me quite interested in this one, but I couldn't fit it in this time around. And thus, I still haven't read anything by Coatzee (yet!).

[Sue]

I have the book and I'm ready to get started soon.

My first Coatzee, so I'm looking forward to seeing how I like it.

[LindaJ^]

Sue, Glad you are joining us. Mark, I think you can fit this in!

[Lily]

LindaJ^ wrote: "Sue, Glad you are joining us. Mark, I think you can fit this in!"

I'm at Chapter 7. So far it seems much easier reading than I remember Life and Times of Michael K to have been (which is many years ago). It is lending itself to picking up and reading a chapter or two at a time (Mark?).

It's strange and perhaps inappropriate, but having read it, I can't help comparing with Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. I didn't really like that book, although I enjoyed the read; prefer the original apocryphal gospel on which she based her story. Still, I find myself comparing with Rice, perhaps because of the edginess of the child portrayed in each.

[LindaJ^]

Thanks Lilly for the referral to Christ the Lord:Out of Egypt. Never would have looked at it, as I only associate Anne Rice with vampires. My favorite take on Jesus's childhood is Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, which was absolutely marvelous, but bears no resemblance to this book. Do you think this is a story about the childhood of Jesus in those years that when he is absent from the Christian bible?

[Lily]

LindaJ^ wrote: "Do you think this is a story about the childhood of Jesus in those years that when he is absent from the Christian bible? ..."

No -- at least that's my off the top of the head answer at this point of reading this. But I do expect the book to somehow or another reflect Coetzee's musings on the significance of the youth of Jesus -- buried as those musings may be in the story he gives us.

Linda, I am not sure what relationships this story has to the Biblical Jesus. Certainly Coetzee uses some perhaps too obvious parallels. But at those levels, they feel trivial to this reader. I am looking for something deeper, something more challenging. Will I find it? Don't know yet.

[LindaJ^]

Lily, nothing struck me a particularly deep but it seems to me the book is deeper and more challenging than what I'm seeing. Certainly the reviews point to that - I did not see much of what they allude to on my initial reading and they have me re-evaluating. Looking forward to hearing if you find something.

[Hugh]

I am about two thirds of the way through and finding it very interesting - there is a lot of philosophy behind what reads like a simple fable. Still don't understand what it has to do with Jesus though...

[Sue]

Hugh - I'm also about 2/3 of the way through, and I'm also looking for how this relates to Jesus.

I'm planning to finish the book, then go back and read the reviews for clues.

[LindaJ^]

Sue, The reviews are full of clues but few conclusions! Seriously though the reviews offer much fodder for pondering.

[Bernadette]

I agree the relation to Jesus is somewhat nebulous, maybe they were both misunderstood? However, because it is set in a fictional, unspecified country, I found it hard to really believe in the story, however well written it is.

[Hugh]

To me the country and its founding principles were interesting - it is clearly some form of utopia that doesn't quite work and set up that way to illustrate what Coetzee wants to say about human nature and human values.

[Hugh]

Finished the book yesterday, and I'll wait for the spoiler thread before saying any more, though I will share my review.

[LindaJ^]

Spoiler thread open -- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/....

[Maggie]

I enjoyed The Childhood of Jesus and was really interested by the reader reviews on Amazon! Much more thoughtful - and all over the place - than usual.LindaJ^ wrote: "Hi All,

We will have only two folders for this book - General and Whole Book. Spoilers only allowed in the Whole Book thread, which I will set up in a day or so.

In this General thread, we will ..."

Hugh wrote: "Finished the book yesterday, and I'll wait for the spoiler thread before saying any more, though I will share my review."

I LindaJ^ wrote: "Hi All,

We will have only two folders for this book - General and Whole Book. Spoilers only allowed in the Whole Book thread, which I will set up in a day or so.

In this General thread, we will ..."

LindaJ^ wrote: "Hi All,

We will have only two folders for this book - General and Whole Book. Spoilers only allowed in the Whole Book thread, which I will set up in a day or so.

In this General thread, we will ..."