Sunday, November 22, 2009

Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee



I chose this as part of my diversification of FITG; the author is South African and a Nobel prize winner. I picked it because it was short. That was maybe a bad idea because I did not really like it. Perhaps I should have read the summaries of each book before choosing.

I did not really like the main character, who is dying of cancer. She's writing letters to her daughter who fled apartheid South Africa for America. The cancer that is killing her is likened to apartheid killing South Africa. There's violence as the situation escalates. I thought it would be good to know more about apartheid but this was not the book to do that. I think I will look for some non-fiction.

I would describe as very literary. For me this means, there's a lot of writing and describing and feeling but not much happens. As an example, I have felt this in some parts of Jane Eyre where she just goes on and on about the stupid landscape. It does not appeal to me.

Overall: 2.5 out of 5. I would not recommend this to someone who shared similar tastes to me.

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