Every body has to read a Coetzee. Once I decided that, I went in search of one. I picked the Master of Petersburg because it's about a writer, Dostoevsky, none less. No, it's not a biography, nothing could be further than that. Coetzee, I quote the blurb here, 'dares to imagine the life of Dostoevsky.'
No, not the whole life, the events that unfold after sudden death of his stepson.
A few pages of reading and the book reached out and grabbed me with such force that I had to stop every few pages just to breathe. The overwhelming reaction made me record as I wrote. And here is some of that:
This is one of those books which needs to be recorded as the journey of it's reading unfolds. You'll see why.
Page 45- I have to stop and gasp for breath. Coetzee has wound around me silken bonds , so effortlessly and skillfully , of deep emotions and sly thoughts and I notice only now when the bonds begin to chaff. I have to go away and sort Fyodor's emotions towards his son. his son's death, to his landlady and his grief. There is much for me to feel and much more to think.
Page 98- I have to stop again. Nothing has happened yet much has happened in the last 53 pages. His son comes to life to me, and so does Fyodor. I can'/t be sure I like him but I can reach out and feel his grief and his need for - I don' t know what to call it, closure seems so tame to the richness of his emotions- but for now, closure will have to do. I feel for the ring at the end of my nose , through which Coetzee has strung this rope with with which he leads me through this maze of his making.
Then Nechaev appears, his son begins to take shape , the daughter of the landlady, the Finnish comrade of Nechaev and even the police- you are no longer sure who is right and who is wrong and what really happened the day the stepson died . Fydor, you are increasingly convinced is the product of pre-revolutionary idea and you buy Coetzee 's idea of how great literature can be born out of a tormented mind.
And walk away with a feeling that Coetzee might well be as much a genius as Dostoevsky.
Read it- It should be required reading for everybody who worships at the alter of the BOOK.
While I havent read this one, I have read Coetzee's Disgrace. an i would say that thats required reading too!
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