Book review: Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
Summertime was on the shortlist for the 2009 Booker Prize and follows the interviews of a young English biographer with the deceased J.M. Coetzee. Mr Vincent is researching the life of Coetzee between the years of 1972 and 1977, which he believes were a key period in the life of the writer.
The book starts with several seemingly random dated passages and italic notes such as ‘to be expanded on‘. The relevance of these passages becomes clear in the following interview with Julia. It appears a curious method by which to start a book but it gives the reader an insight into the setting and period.
Strangely, throughout the book, Coetzee appears to be self critical in how he allows other people to describe him as cold, anti-social and even as a bad lover.
‘John had what I would call a sexual mode, into which he would switch when he took off his clothes. In sexual mode he could perform the male part perfectly adequately - adequately, competently, but - but for my taste - too impersonally.’
It would be naive however for the reader to take this as honest self-examination. The book itself is described as a ‘fictionalised memoir’ and Coetzee does fictionalise the biggest element of all – his death.
It begs the question as to why Coetzee would write of himself in this way, is it in good humour or is it representative of other elements of the book? One of the key themes throughout the book is the sense of place. John Coetzee in the book is an outsider, even within his own family, having previously left South African and now returned but to little welcome.
Coetzee frequently appears to feel like an intruder in South Africa and this is further commented on by the interview with Martin:
“…our presence there was legal but illegitimate. We had an abstract right to be there, a birthright, but the basis of that right was fraudulent… grounded in crime, namely colonial conquest…”
Does Coetzee’s self criticism perhaps more deeply symbolise how he feels about South Africa? Is his description of himself as an impersonal lover perhaps representative of how impersonal he feels towards South Africa?
Coetzee is an infamous reclusive and did not collect either of his Booker Prizes in person so perhaps the more important message of the book is how he feels about his private life. In the final interview Sophie questions how ethical writing a biography without permission is and maybe this is the real question that Coetzee wishes the reader to consider.
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee is published by Vintage (paperback RRP £8.99) and available from Amazon
To submit a review of a book, course, film, magazine or website, please email judy@EssentialWriters.com
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