Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Elizabeth Costello
Book Review: Elizabeth Costello's slide into oblivion
Summary: 2 Stars
I am sure that Elizabeth Costello is very erudite and will send some intellectuals into paroxisms of joy. However, at it's heart, this is the tale of a woman who either refuses to, or simply cannot connect with people, other than through the delivery of criticsm. The notable exception centers upon an old artist with whom Elizabeth can at least empathize. To her own children and grandchildren, she remains emotionally distant.
This is also a book about a woman's slow slide into apathy and death. Everywhere Elizabeth goes, she wishes she was somewhere else. When she gives lectures, her primary motivation is to get past them, and back to the safety of her room. She has become jaded, exhausted, and constantly reminds herself of her age.
The end of the book, for me, was an utter waste of time. Costello finds herself before a gate, although it is definitely not pearly. There, and in a courtroom, she argues for the right not to believe in anything, but eventually finds something to believe in. At least she thinks she might. Or at least she can feign some passion. Whatever...
Thus, if you like equivocation, large doses of apathy, mixed with a few deep thoughts, this is your book.
Book Review: Great Payoff for Minimal Investment
Summary: 5 Stars
There are powerful ideas in this book, and even more engaging is a profile of a person that trades in ideas. Within a couple hundred pages, you've wrestled with art, society, and the gods. Doesn't even take up a full evening. There is real profundity here, but no ponderousness, and that's rare. This book is a fantastic use of your time and attention. What is raised here is difficult to ignore, and it's easy to forget that as a/the criteria for literature.Book Review: I would've enjoyed an enema more.
Summary: 1 Stars
I have to admit that I was "taken in" by the "Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature" mention that graced the cover. Having never read a Coetzee novel, I thought this would be a fine start.
It wasn't. It was nowhere near a fine start, or a fine anything. To say that this book is the equivalent of mental masturbation is an understatement. For a literary genius, the main character, Elizabeth Costello, is about as interesting and engaging as a "Charles in Charge" rerun. Though at least a "Charles in Charge" rerun has a plot, which this book fails to even consider necessary.
The only joy I have gotten from this book has been in hating it. From letting others know that this is a load of over-intellectualized crap that should be avoided at all costs. Sadly, I'm still wiping the thing off my proverbial shoe. Which now begs the question: What am I to do with this fine waste of paper, ink, and energy?
Too bad I don't have a birdcage.
Book Review: Misleading as Fiction
Summary: 2 Stars
I read J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace and was blown away by its powerful prose. I believe wholeheartedly that J.M. Coetzee is deserving of his Nobel Prize. I started to read Elizabeth Costello and couldn't even finish it because I was so bored. There's no real story to this book. I'm not sure why its classified as a work of fiction. Its not fiction, its a mish-mash of J.M. Coetzee's essays and ideas, collected under the guise of a "story". People will buy this book wanting some semblance of a plot or forward moving action and they'll be disappointed, just as I was. I really tried to slog through it all the way to the end (its a slim volume), but I couldn't. Mr. Coetzee is no slouch and he's no dummy ... I'm just not sure this was the right vehicle for getting this type of material out there.Book Review: Novel Exceeded My Expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's a novel that many accuse of not being a novel at all, at being a polemic, a bunch of essays and diatribes, disguised as a novel. True perhaps but the craft and aristry of Coetzee is so exquisite that he pulls it off. Here's the situation: An aging writer Elizabeth Costello, award-winnning novelist and humanist and animal lover, is asked to lecture after winning her awards and she speaks on a variety of subjects--the role and responsibility of the novelist, the nature of evil, Christianity vs. Greek philosophy, the brutality of animals and an argument for vegetarianism, the nature of the third-world novel. Each subject is presented in a separate chapter in which Costello either lectures or argues with other intelligent people, so that you get, not just Costello's worldview, but a vigorous opposition.
In this way, Costello's views don't go unchallenged. Also her views, especially comparing the slaughter of animals to the Holocaust, causes great controversy and animosity between her and the community. In another case, she accuses the novelist Paul West of exploiting Nazi evil in his graphic and indulgent portrayals of it resulting in the writing community to accuse her of cencorship. These contentious scenes give her arguments a context and a drama that essays wouldn't have provided.
Vulnerable, fragile at times, not always prepared to answer her detractors, Elizabeth Costello is a very human advocate for her positions and never comes across as a bullying superhuman to mouthpiece Coetzee's philosophy. He's too subtle an artist for that.
I think there is a place for a novel of ideas. Gulliver's Travels and Voltaire certainly were such novels and Elizabeth Costello is worthy of following their lead.