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simulanda's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
pickle_burner's review against another edition
4.0
The people who shit on this book and it’s predecessor are incredibly mistaken and missing the point. Their brains tire easily turning over the paradoxes and obtuse angles inherent in both books. They long for something more forgiving and inviting. And they miss it over and over and over again. These books stay with you. The ending of this in particular was energetic, beautiful, and surprising.
manaledi's review
3.0
I'm not really sure what just happened. I'm not sure I have enough biblical knowledge to understand the allegories here, other than that the title tells me there is one.
violainend's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
bub_9's review
1.0
This was just very tiresome to read. It felt like Coetzee and all his intellectualizing, now stripped of the emotionally gripping concern of apartheid/power relations, having turned to the idea of a soul/identity, produced this work which is genuinely just as often confusing as it is wearying.
Also, the "he, Simon" device is irritatingly blatant in that it copies the device without understanding or utilizing the effect the same way. What's the point when there's hardly any emotional immediacy to be experienced?
Also, the "he, Simon" device is irritatingly blatant in that it copies the device without understanding or utilizing the effect the same way. What's the point when there's hardly any emotional immediacy to be experienced?
damopedro's review
3.0
Frustrating because it was traveling along nicely for most of the book but then I didn't find the ending very satisfying at all.
fa_biene's review
1.0
The plot was interesting enough, but everything seemed overly constructed. The dialogues are not real, don't FEEL real, and I could not relate to any of the characters.
I am sure the book contains many clever references, but to me, it was neither interestig nor touching. In short: not a good novel.
I am sure the book contains many clever references, but to me, it was neither interestig nor touching. In short: not a good novel.
thebeardedpoet's review against another edition
3.0
Just to be clear no one named Jesus appears in this novel. It is a allegorical novel about a dance school and a heinous murder. Also Coetzee is examining the relationships between a child, his adoptive father, and the ubiquitous murderer. The book has its moments of interest but the last quarter lost steam for me.
ainsleyiscariot's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
textpublishing's review
4.0
I was really looking forward to diving in to this longlisted Man Booker Prize nominee. It was simple to follow (something I cherish in a novel — at times) and surprisingly funny (mainly when the child David drops a comment into conversation that manages to illuminate some fundamental social aspect of our world, that we take for granted, encouraging everyone present to feel uncomfortable). Allegorical? Absolutely. Although, I am still trying to grasp the allegory and worry about what that illuminates in me.
Here’s what reviewers are saying but what did YOU think?
‘An intimacy born from urgency crackles through each of [Coetzee’s] books, as if one is not reading a text but being plugged into a brand new form of current—reinvented each time to carry a new and urgent form of narrative information…Coetzee is the most radical shapeshifter alive.’
John Freeman, Australian
‘The Childhood of Jesus represents a return to the allegorical mode that made him famous…a Kafkaesque version of the nativity story…The Childhood of Jesus does ample justice to his giant reputation: it’s richly enigmatic, with regular flashes of Coetzee’s piercing intelligence.’
Guardian
‘The Schooldays of Jesus by JM Coetzee is maddening, obscure — and brilliant.’
Telegraph
‘Obscurely compelling, often very funny, full of sudden depths…The Schooldays of Jesus is a work of many small but significant truths, rather than one central message; a novel stubbornly committed to its own way of doing things.’
Guardian
‘Yet although it is written with the coolness and limpidity that make Coetzee such a master, the story remains almost uninterpretable, certainly no simple allegory, quite an achievement in itself. Frustrating, yes, but not just that. There were moments when I found it almost too affecting to read without pausing to recover myself.’
Evening Standard
‘The way [Coetzee] mixes the enigmatic and almost otherworldly elements of this child with his youthful and innocent questions makes David the perfect mix of endearing, enraging, and enlightening. He’s as believable as characters come.’
Bookmunch
‘Freed from literary convention, Mr Coetzee writes not to provide answers, but to ask great questions.’
Economist
‘Coetzee’s depiction is unlike any other you’ve read. Rather, it’s decidedly ‘Coetzeean’…Eloquent and provocative.’
Readings
‘The indeterminacy…gives the two Jesus novels their air of unreality and their vaguely allegorical sheen, but it also provides a conveniently stripped-back setting in which to stage philosophical arguments.’
Sydney Review of Books
‘At sentence level, he [Coetzee] is, of course, a model of clarity – think of the dry and unornamented perspicuity Coetzee brings to bear in his fiction, the fastidiousness of thought that emits from his creations the way a dot matrix printer unspools. Yet the cumulative effect of this approach is not arid intellection but organic feeling: full-fleshed, mysterious and often extreme.’
Monthly
‘These are novels for our time…They will puzzle you and frustrate you but at the end of Schooldays you will catch a glimpse of the things unseen.’
Online Opinion
‘The continuation of a masterpiece that is breathtaking and enthralling in its strangeness.’
Peter Craven, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year
‘The continuation of a masterpiece that is breathtaking and enthralling in its strangeness.’
Peter Craven, Australian Book Review
Here’s what reviewers are saying but what did YOU think?
‘An intimacy born from urgency crackles through each of [Coetzee’s] books, as if one is not reading a text but being plugged into a brand new form of current—reinvented each time to carry a new and urgent form of narrative information…Coetzee is the most radical shapeshifter alive.’
John Freeman, Australian
‘The Childhood of Jesus represents a return to the allegorical mode that made him famous…a Kafkaesque version of the nativity story…The Childhood of Jesus does ample justice to his giant reputation: it’s richly enigmatic, with regular flashes of Coetzee’s piercing intelligence.’
Guardian
‘The Schooldays of Jesus by JM Coetzee is maddening, obscure — and brilliant.’
Telegraph
‘Obscurely compelling, often very funny, full of sudden depths…The Schooldays of Jesus is a work of many small but significant truths, rather than one central message; a novel stubbornly committed to its own way of doing things.’
Guardian
‘Yet although it is written with the coolness and limpidity that make Coetzee such a master, the story remains almost uninterpretable, certainly no simple allegory, quite an achievement in itself. Frustrating, yes, but not just that. There were moments when I found it almost too affecting to read without pausing to recover myself.’
Evening Standard
‘The way [Coetzee] mixes the enigmatic and almost otherworldly elements of this child with his youthful and innocent questions makes David the perfect mix of endearing, enraging, and enlightening. He’s as believable as characters come.’
Bookmunch
‘Freed from literary convention, Mr Coetzee writes not to provide answers, but to ask great questions.’
Economist
‘Coetzee’s depiction is unlike any other you’ve read. Rather, it’s decidedly ‘Coetzeean’…Eloquent and provocative.’
Readings
‘The indeterminacy…gives the two Jesus novels their air of unreality and their vaguely allegorical sheen, but it also provides a conveniently stripped-back setting in which to stage philosophical arguments.’
Sydney Review of Books
‘At sentence level, he [Coetzee] is, of course, a model of clarity – think of the dry and unornamented perspicuity Coetzee brings to bear in his fiction, the fastidiousness of thought that emits from his creations the way a dot matrix printer unspools. Yet the cumulative effect of this approach is not arid intellection but organic feeling: full-fleshed, mysterious and often extreme.’
Monthly
‘These are novels for our time…They will puzzle you and frustrate you but at the end of Schooldays you will catch a glimpse of the things unseen.’
Online Opinion
‘The continuation of a masterpiece that is breathtaking and enthralling in its strangeness.’
Peter Craven, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year
‘The continuation of a masterpiece that is breathtaking and enthralling in its strangeness.’
Peter Craven, Australian Book Review