Scenes from Country Life

Nobel Prize winner Coetzee is considered one of the world's most important living writers.

JM Coetzee is such an introverted writer that he doesn't even go to collect the Booker Prizes he won. Rian Malan describes him as follows: "Coetzee lives a disciplined and measured life like a monk. He doesn't drink, smoke, or eat meat. He rides his bike for miles to keep in shape. He spends at least an hour at his desk every morning." Yet another colleague said that in the 10 years he worked with Coetzee, he had only seen him laugh once. An acquaintance of his who attended several dinner parties where Coetzee was present states that he did not utter a single word throughout the event.

It may seem surprising that an author who disguises himself like this writes his biography. However, with this book, Coetzee turns his back on the conventional tradition of autobiography, which is stuck in the tension between the "past" reality of life events and the "today" remembered part. While narrating his life with strict realism, he tells many things about himself, but it is not clear how much is real and how much is fiction. The Childhood and Youth sections of the book come closer to fiction by being narrated from the third person rather than the first person. On the other hand, the Summer Season section completely excludes the author and presents his biography in the form of interviews with five people who had a place in his life.

As a result, Scenes from Country Life is defined as an "autobiographical novel" or "fictionalized biography", not an autobiography.



Number of Pages: 608

Year of Printing: 2011


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Can Yayınları

First Print Year: 2011

Number of Pages: 608

Language Turkish