Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial LifeDisgrace, published in 1999, won J.M. Coetzee his second Booker Prize in fiction and was met with great critical acclaim. Coetzee's previous novels earned him many more admirers, but over the years since Waiting for the Barbarians was published, Coetzee has been reluctant to talk about himself. Now, revisiting the South Africa of a half century ago, he writes about his childhood and one writer's beginnings. Boyhood's narrator grew up in a new development north of Cape Town, tormented by guilt and fear. With a father he did not respect, and a mother he both adored and resented, he led a double life-the brilliant and well-behaved student at school, the princely despot at home, always terrified of losing his mother's love. His first encounters with literature, the awakenings of sexual desire, and a growing awareness of apartheid left him with baffling questions; and only in his love of the high veld ("farms are places of freedom, of life") could he find a sense of belonging. Bold and telling, this masterly evocation of a young boy's life is the book Coetzee's many admirers have been waiting for, but never could have expected. |
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Afrikaans boys Afrikaans classes afternoon asks his mother Aunt Annie Aunt Annie's baby ball batsman berg Bay bicycle bowls brother cane Cape Town catch Catholic Coetzee Coloured comes dark Eddie Elizabeth Costello English eyes farm father feels Fraserburg friends goes Gouws hair hand hear heart J. M. Coetzee Jan van Riebeeck Jews Johnny Wardle jokes Karoo kitchen legs listens live look morning never normal once Ossewabrandwag Outa Jaap Piet Retief plays cricket Plumstead pretend Reunion Park ride Rob Hart Ros and Freek Roux rugby Russians says secret sheep shoes sisters smile soft South Africans St Joseph's Standard Canners stands stoep stories talk teacher tells Theo things thinks Toweel Trevelyan turn Uncle Uncle Albert UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DEARBORN veld Voëlfontein waiting wants watching wearing Whelan Worcester words