Slow Man
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| Author | J.M. Coetzee |
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| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Literature |
| Publisher | Secker & Warburg |
| Released | 1 September 2005 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 272pp (UK hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-436-20611-0 |
| Preceded by | Elizabeth Costello |
Slow Man is a 2005 novel by South African/Australian author J.M. Coetzee, and concerns a man who must learn to adapt after losing a leg in a road accident. The novel has many varied themes, including the nature of care, the relationship between an author and his characters, and man's drive to leave a legacy. It is Coetzee's first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
[edit] Plot
The novel tells the story of Paul Rayment, a man of late middle-age who loses part of a leg after his bicycle collides with a young man on a motorcycle. He becomes reclusive, and must retreat to his flat and submit to a succession of nurses. None suit him until Marijana, with whom he shares a European childhood (hers in Croatia, his in France), comes along. Paul's feelings for Marijana, and her teenage son, become more complex. When Paul offers to finance her son's education, Marijana's husband is not so happy, and the interactions between carer and submissive become awkward.
It is not until the famed author Elizabeth Costello – the eponymous heroine of Coetzee's 2003 novel Elizabeth Costello – finds her way into Paul's life that he is able to become a stronger and fuller person.
On a deeper and more meaningful level the book is a discourse on the inter-relationship between the literary author and the characters, and with reality. Indeed Elizabeth Costello is, as a character, Deus ex Machina, and can be seen as the author himself interacting with his characters. Elizabeth Costello may be a fictionalization of J.M. Coetzee himself.
[edit] Reviews
- Defending South African Realism by Ruben Copoosamy
- Review from MysteryInk
- Photoshop Love in J.M. Coetzee’s Book About Captive Goldfish, Slow Man
| John Maxwell Coetzee |
|---|
| Novels |
| Dusklands (1974) • In the Heart of the Country (1977) • Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) • Life & Times of Michael K (1983) • Foe (1986) • Age of Iron (1990) • The Master of Petersburg (1994) • Disgrace (1999) • Elizabeth Costello (2003) • Slow Man (2005) • Diary of a Bad Year (2007) |
| Essays |
| White Writing: On the Culture of Letters in South Africa (1988) • Doubling the Point: Essays and Interviews (1992) • Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996) • The Lives of Animals (1999) • Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986–1999 (2001) |
| Autobiographical works |
| Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997) • Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002) |
