In the Heart of the Country (1977) is an early novel by J.M. Coetzee. Describing this book is like describing a wave you didn't see coming. It swept over me and then was gone. I'm still clueless.
from the back of the book:
On a remote farm in South Africa, the protagonist of J. M. Coetzee's fierce and passionate novel watches the life from which she has been excluded. Ignored by her callous father, scorned and feared by his servants, she is a bitterly intelligent woman whose outward meekness disguises a desperate resolve not to become "one of the forgotten ones of history." When her father takes an African mistress, that resolve precipitates an act of vengeance that suggests a chemical reaction between the colonizer and the colonized - and between European yearnings and the vastness and solitude of Africa. A story told in prose as feverishly rich as William Faulkner's, In the Heart of the Country is a work of irresistible power. With vast assurance and an unerring eye, J. M. Coetzee has turned the family romance into a mirror of the colonial experience.Reviews are scarce.
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I tend to like Coetzee, but he isn´t always easy to understand. Haven´t read this one, though. "Foe" is one I might re-read one day.
ReplyDeletei could write a summary of this one. i found myself thinking, "what???" and going back and re-reading parts of it. either this book was obtuse or i was lol. i've read disgrace and life & times of michael k and liked those.
DeleteI want to read Michael K (which is not on Kindle, annoyingly), I tend to go for books that seem to be responses to other author´s work. I enjoyed his "The Master of St Petersburg". I probably don´t always get the meta-levels, though...
Deletei'm sure i miss a lot of the references.
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