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J. M. Coetzee's majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, Boyhood, Youth and Summertime. Here, for the first time in one volume, is J. M. Coetzee's majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, Boyhood, Youth and Summertime. Scenes from Provincial Life opens in a small town in the South Africa of the 1940s. We meet a young boy who, at home, is ill at ease with his father and stifled by his mother's unconditional love. At school he passes every test that is set for him, but he remains wary of his fellow pupils, especially the rough Afrikaners. As a student of mathematics in Cape Town he readies himself to escape his homeland, travel to Europe and turn himself into an artist. Once in London, however, the reality is dispiriting: he toils as a computer programmer, inhabits a series of damp, dreary flats and is haunted by loneliness and boredom. He is a constitutional outsider. He fails to write. Decades later, an English biographer researches a book about the late John Coetzee, particularly the period following his return to South Africa from America. Interviewees describe an awkward man still living with his father, a man who insists on performing dull manual labour. His family regard him with suspicion and he is dogged by rumours: that he crossed the authorities in America, that he writes poetry. Scenes from Provincial Life is a heartbreaking and often very funny portrait of the artist by one of the world's greatest writers. Publisher's note.
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Previews available in: English Russian Spanish
Subjects
South Africans, South African Novelists, Biography, Fiction, Fiction, biographical, South africa, fiction, Autobiographical fiction, South African (English), Spanish language materials, Novela, Autores sudafricanos, BiografíaPeople
J. M. Coetzee (1940-)Places
EnglandTimes
20th century, Siglo XXShowing 6 featured editions. View all 6 editions?
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Scenes from provincial life: Boyhood, Youth, Summertime
2012, Penguin Books
in English
014242255X 9780142422557
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Work Description
Discover the pen strokes behind writer J.M. Coeetzee's life as he recounts the triumph and tragedy that shaped his life in this reflection on his early years. 592pp.
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Feedback?November 13, 2022 | Edited by Lisa | Merge works |
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February 22, 2012 | Created by LC Bot | import new book |