Suggested reading

A couple of months ago I was told about J.M. Coetzee; a South African writer born in Cape Town in 1940; who was educated as a computer scientist and linguist. He has pocketed several literature awards like the CNA prize (in South Africa) for "In the heart of the country", the Lannan Literary Award for ficiton in 1998 and the Nobel Prize in literature in 2003. The book I was recommended to read was "Foe"; now I want to share this experience with my readers (whose are not more than two or three) for whose I feel a heartly affection. Here I go with a little synopsis of it.

" In 1720 the eminent man of letters Daniel Foe is approached by Susan Barton, lately a castaway on a desert island. She wants him to tell her story, and that of the enigmatic man who has become her rescuer, companion, master and sometime lover: Cruso. Cruso is dead, and his manservant, Friday, is incapable of speech. As she tries to relate the truth about him, the ambitious Barton cannot help turning Cruso into her invention."

For as narrated by Foe -as by Coetzee himself- the stories we thought we knew acquiredepths that are at once treacherous, elegant, and unexpectedly moving.

I really enjoy this great author in times when "the Da Vinci Code", "Harry Potter" and "Any Crap book by Paulo Cohelo" rule the universe of literature.

Volan

Comments

Vidya Jayaraman said…

As to HP and Dan Brown ruling the universe of literature? No, They are just popular.

The first book of Coetzee's that I picked up was Disgrace.The depths of characterization couched in a stark prose impressed me so much.I think Foe is a much more multi-layered, multi-dimensional work and I really really loved it.

6:44 PM

Volan's last will.

This is a picture of the envelope I received. On September the 29th I received a letter sent from London Metropolitan Police’s forensic department. The envelope contains Volan’s death report. I am still recovering from such a terrible moment. As Volan’s closest (and perhaps sole) friend I am in the obligation of publishing these lines on his own blog, as it was his last will. In strange circumstances my dearest friend Volan passed away in the dawn of the 23rd of September in Homerton Hospital in London. His body was carted off from the churchyard of Saint Paul’s Cathedral after a mad night out with Siobhan (Sweeny), -an Irish-Scottish blues singer whose Volan had just met few hours before in the surrounding areas of Anexo Bar, close to Farringdon Station. At the moment that the ambulance arrived at the place Volan showed a critical state and almost without vital signals dying a while after indoors, in the above mentioned hospital. The death certificated shows a very cryptic language

Ain't it shame....Summer is here........Aaaaagggghhh

Summer is here, yet I am not really happy, things are not going well but what can I do?. There is a new entry, new music, and a new drawing by Ferney . (he seems to be quite busy nowadays to visit his friends). A hot June damped by the Monsoon, full of football, (oh dear! I am still looking forward watching FOOTBALL.). The musical selection* for this very week is made of the Scotish band Belle & Sebastian , David Gilmour's great Pink Floyd ,the ex-gunners (Guns and Roses) Velvet Revolver , Gomez (pretty new band but very very good -sometimes it reminds me "Beck" -Not David Beckham of course),a bit of powerful punk by Bob Geldof's Boomtown Rats -Irish Band-, Lou Reed's Velvet Underground ,a song by Nirvana from the "Nirvana Box" for those who say that the lads from Seattle never played Blues -and for a very special friend whose I believe hates Nirvana-, The Cure ; because we all were lovely children (with good taste) once upon a time, British

the wall of discord

LA TRIPLE FRONTERA Polémica en Paraguay por el muro que Brasil construirá en la frontera La valla se edificará frente a Ciudad del Este. Lo califican de "gesto de hostilidad".( mas ) BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil will build a wall on a small portion of its border with Paraguay in an effort to combat contraband and smuggling, the government's official news agency said.( more ) Source: Clarin, Buenos Aires.(esp) and MSNBC(eng)

Nevermind the bollocks!

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