CV

You're absolutely right (this time only). Mr. Dee sounds like a HR manager rather than a critic. I'm not a great artist but I don't remember numbers whatsoever (and not that in this case Coetzee should have remembered any). This is a very bizzare complaint.

Which song is this?

bizarre indeed

Reading Summertime I have never wondered whether things were true or false. I enjoyed reading a Coetzee.

Vera

I did wonder whether they were true or false. It feels like a relief they were false.
He portrayed the man as a lonesome outcast , a stereotype most people associate with artists.

Jonathan Dee should have known better: in the first novel Dusklands – The Vietnam Project, there already dwells a fictitious character called Coetzee.

interview and republication

Dear Arnun Grunberg,

I am the editor of the journal Literary Journalism Studies. A couple of colleagues from the University of Gronigen introduced me to your reportage at a conferennce last May. Could I persuade you to either contribute an essay to our journal on your views about the kind of reportage you publish, or at least to be interviewed on the subject? Also, would you be interested in having one of your earlier articles republished in order to introduce you to readers who may not be familiar with your work?

Unfortunately, we are not in a position to pay you. But it would be an opportunity to introduce you to those who believe that the kind of reportage you write is important to study in the university and for students to read. If you would like to know more about us, you can find our journal at "literaryjournalismstudies.org" (we publish both hard copy and online).

I do hope you will consider letting us publish something on you and your work.

Wishing you the best for the New Year,

John

John C. Hartsock, Editor
Literary Journalism Studies
State University of New York at Cortland
Cortland, NY

Bernard

For some reason the Life and Times of Michael K apparently fused in my memory with Dusklands, I was sure that somehow Coetzee was there. Thanks for putting things in order (as if Coetzee does not exist in Michael K... :)) I allow myself exploring that section of the mind and Buzzati's The Tartar Steppe is also located there. I can't supply a quick reasoning for that.

vandalised facts

@Neria
- a HR manager = an HR manager
- bizzare = bizarre
"I'm not a great artist but I don't remember numbers whatsoever..."
What's with artists - minor or great - and 'remembering' ?! '...but I don't...?
And I guess by these 'numbers' you mean dates and years (of Coetzee's mother's death etc.).
I don't think there was any complaint made by the reviewer, he just discussed these 'vandalised' facts, like others did before him.

@Vera
- Reading Summertime I have never wondered = I never wondered

@Mieke
Why would it be a relief those facts turned out to be false?

This is the fourth or fifth review I have read about Coetzee's Summertime (which I haven't read).
And I really don't think this critic was confusing fact and fiction.

'“How can you be a great writer,” says Adriana [who calls him 'a man of wood'], “if you are just an ordinary little man?” Coetzee may feel it is too late to amend his legacy in the second regard, but even from beyond the fictional grave he is determined to expand upon the first.'

It goes without saying that many ordinary little men were great writers.
Coetzee making himself somewhat less ordinary and 'more little' at the same time in his latest novel got critics to wonder why exactly, and what the implications were for that novel itself.
I don't think that so bizarre.

Bert

If the facts had been true, it would have felt like I was trespassing on his private life. Fiction is what I expect from a novellist, gossip should be restricted to the tabloids. Demanding actual facts is , for me, proof of an unhealthy appetite. That I consider a form of vandalism.

bert

Thank you! I hesitated before placing the 'a' but remembered the rule that 'an' should be used before vowels and thanks to you I now know that 'an' should be used before vowel SOUNDS! That's a really big chunk of wisdom :) I feel like walking on frontiers...
Now, after proving to be such a brilliant and benevolent teacher (despite the fact that we don't share the same sense of humor) how would you define a critic?

Dutoit

Fiction is a (higher) form of gossip.

bert

You're guessing too much and you guess badly. By sharing the information about numbers I tried to accentuate the absurdity of focusing on such details when the reviewed text is fiction. The absurdity of the sentence was an inevitable part of it, from my point of view artists may remember dates and numbers perfectly.
If I looked up the grammatical rule for the use of 'an' you should at least make the minimal effort and look for the definition of Minor literature. Instead of saluting to my mental health you should perhaps take care not to be ignorant after I spoonfed you more than a couple of times in Grunberg's 'Hunger'. And apropos mental health I would check the relation between fixation on dates, numbers and grammar and anal retentive personalities.

Hesper

If you are going to fact-check novels you have a strange understanding of what a novel actually is or you are suffering from a terribly postmodern hiccup.
Reading the book and not only the reviews is sometimes helpful if you are entering a discussion about that book.

(Well, yes, if World War II starts in a novel on let’s say October 1, 1939, and the author didn’t mean to falsify history, this could be fact-checked by an editor, but it is doubtful if we are supposed to treat the life of a reclusive author as J.M Coetzee as a collection of historical facts.)

What would Dee say about Roth's The Plot Against America? That it is a proof that Jews plan to conquer the world?!

Bert

Shame on me!

@Neria
What's the definition of a critic / reviewer?
Just off-hand: I would say anyone (including myself) who happens to have some opinion on whatver (including novels and literature in general).
Whether he/she publishes his arguments and opinions or not.
@Neria II
"If I looked up the grammatical rule for the use of 'an' you should at least make the minimal effort and look for the definition of Minor literature."
??
I saluted to your mental health?
You spoonfed me?
So I am an 'anal retentive'?
My God! What did I say? What did I do?
Dearest Neria Biala, please forget what I said. Don't take each and every little word so personal, never mind your use of 'a HR manager' etc etc!
('You should at least make the minimal effort ....')
@Neria III
'What would Dee say about Roth's....'
Did I say anything about your mental health?
I might have been right without knowing/realizing it!

@Arnon Grunberg
I might well be suffering from this 'terribly postmodern hiccup'.
I wasn't discussing the book but the review!
And then: "Well, yes, (...), ..., but it is doubtful if we are supposed to treat the life of a reclusive author as [=like] J.M. Coetzee as a collection of historical facts."
Read and reread this sentence please.
I thought Mr Coetzee had published a novel, not his autobiography.
Who is treating his life as a collection of historical facts?
Strange sentence by the way...
'This reclusive author...'
I don't think he's that reclusive.
It seems to me the meaning of 'reclusive' / 'recluse' / 'hermit' and what are they called, is under inflation as well.

@Dutoit/Grunberg
'Fiction is a (higher) form of gossip' !
Mr Grunberg: you are most certainly inimitable!
We might have an original definition of what fiction (literature) is.
Please go on gossipping!
And publish some glossy called 'Arnon G'.

Hesper

Perhaps you should spend more time reading books and don't waste your time on discussing reviews, making trite remarks ("I thought Mr Coetzee had published a novel, not his autobiography.") and asking questions you should be able to answer yourself ("Who is treating his life as a collection of historical facts?").

Sneering is not a very impressive argument. And your assocation with the word "gossip" ("glossies") is a proof of your laziness.

As to what you think and what you believe ("I don't think he's that reclusive") -- it's a fairly common misunderstanding that all opinions are equally important.

I, for one, believe that you should stick to what you're good at: being an unemployed teacher clumsily disguised as a clownish name-dropper.

What you believe to know about Mr. Coetzee's lastest novel after having read four or five reviews (you outdid yourself, four or five reviews, for heaven's sake!) doesn't interest me at all.

Sneering

@Grunberg
- Who shouldn't spend more time reading books instead of reviews?
- No rhetorical questions are ever allowed?
- 'Sneering is not a very impressive argument.' Of course not. Sneering is never an argument, it is a way of 'discussing' things. A bit like irony etc.
- How could any association I have with any word used ever be proof of any 'laziness' ? The more associations you have with a word the better I would think.
- Next you just state that my opinion of what a recluse is, is based on a 'fairly common misunderstanding that all opinions are equally important.'
I'm sorry, but I don't think Mr Coetzee can be called a recluse, that's all.
- 'What you believe to know.... etc doesn't interest me at all.'
That's fine; like Karel vh Reve said, instinctively 'you just don't think some writers are worth reading'; why exactly remains a mystery, but THERE'S THE RUB: this critic, Jonathan Dee - and you yourself - regard J.M. Coetzee one of the greatest living writers (if not THE greatest) of our time.
J. Dee wrote some review, another admirer (you) disagreed.
Two novelists disagreeing on what one wrote about a third novelist.
I am reading these first two novelists and have serious doubts about the third. That's it really. No offence intended.

And I, for one, believe that you should never use ad hominem arguments.
I consider myself the winner of any discussion when my opponent starts using them...

Hesper

"I'm sorry, but I don't think Mr Coetzee can be called a recluse, that's all."

Yes, that's all.

Mr Grunberg

So we agree on this (J.M. Coetzee cannot be called a recluse)?
Now there we have something, don't we?

To Hesper

Would you be so kind to tell us why the author Coetzee can't be qualified being a recluse?

You are encouraged to introduce examples, supporting your claim.

Recluse

Since John Coetzee taught at the University of Cape Town for many years, with all the social contact that entailed, I do not think one can call him "a recluse".

Being a very private person and not liking interviews is not the same as being "a recluse".

Note that "reclusive" is not as strong. One could possibly describe Coetzee as being a "rather reclusive" person.

recluse

What about Kafka or J.D. Salinger?
They are certainly more reclusive than Coetzee.

@Mieke

So if you read "He picked up the telephone" in a novel supposed to be set in the 1800's, you're not troubled by it?
And BTW, novellist = novelist.

Reclusion

As for Kafka: the dead are usually rather reclusive. The extroverted ones tend to instill general terror.

Is Salinger a recluse? Perhaps it would be better to say that he has lived a rather confused life.

Bert

I admit, you are way out of my league.

Facts

Coetzee himself allows you an answer to all those questions in his novel Slow Man.
(If you ask me, Slow Man is the most disturbing novel I have ever read – Here, the master really plays with my feelings, my ideas, in short, with my bollocks. And I liked it.)

I like Coetzee. Sometimes I think of him as my father.

What a strange review. Truth (according to Coetzee) is not about facts and dates; it's about something much more fundamental: finding the truth about one's character, motivations and attitudes to others. Truth of character - that is what Coetzee examines in his autobiographical-fiction trilogy.
Happy new year by the way.