Jongensjaren

Scenes from Provincial Life #1

by J.M. Coetzee, Peter Bergsma (Translator)

De jongen van Jongensjaren groeit op in een provinciestadje in Zuid-Afrika. Hij leidt een dubbelleven met een vader voor wie hij geen enkel respect koestert en een moeder die hij niet alleen aanbidt, maar aan wie hij zich ook ergert. Op school is hij de briljante en de zich keurig gedragende leerling, thuis het tirannieke prinsje dat altijd bang is de liefde van zijn moeder te verliezen. Zijn eerste contacten met de literatuur, het ontwaken van seksuele gevoelens en een groeiend besef van de apartheid brengen hem compleet van zijn stuk.

Alleen zijn liefde voor het veld - op boerderijen vind je vrijheid en leven - geeft hem het gevoel ergens bij te horen.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, South Africa, Nobel Prize, Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction

185 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

J. M. Coetzee is a South African writer, essayist, and translator, widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of contemporary literature. His works, often characterized by their austere prose and profound moral and philosophical depth, explore themes of colonialism, identity, power, and human suffering. Born and raised in South Africa, he later became an Australian citizen and has lived in Adelaide since 2002.
Coetzee’s breakthrough novel, Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), established him as a major literary voice, while Life & Times of Michael K (1983) won him the first of his two Booker Prizes. His best-known work, Disgrace (1999), a stark and unsettling examination of post-apartheid South Africa, secured his second Booker Prize, making him the first author to win the award twice. His other notable novels include Foe, Age of Iron, The Master of Petersburg, Elizabeth Costello, and The Childhood of Jesus, many of which incorporate allegorical and metafictional elements.
Beyond fiction, Coetzee has written numerous essays and literary critiques, contributing significantly to discussions on literature, ethics, and history. His autobiographical trilogy—Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime—blends memoir with fiction, offering a fragmented yet insightful reflection on his own life. His literary achievements were recognized with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
A deeply private individual, Coetzee avoids public life and rarely gives interviews, preferring to let his work speak for itself.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

SCENE DI VITA DI PROVINCIA


David Coetzee, fratello dello scrittore J.M. Coetzee, in un ritratto realizzato dal premio Nobel. Tutte le foto sono scattate dal giovane J.M. Coetzee

Primo capitolo del romanzo autobiografia difficile capire quanto fittizia. Fantabiografia?

Ad accelerare il processo di crescita del giovane John, qui seguito in terza persona dai dieci ai tredici anni, è la realtà del secondo dopoguerra nel suo paese natale, il Sudafrica.
Siamo in provincia, come indica il sottotitolo, che si protrae ad abbracciare anche i capitoli seguenti, Gioventù e Tempo d'estate. E con provincia s’intende la periferia di Worcester, a centosessanta chilometri da Città del Capo.


A casa di un compagno.

John adora la madre in modo viscerale, ma per forza di cose non è un sentimento sereno, quanto piuttosto un attaccamento morboso.
Anche perché dall’altra parte detesta suo padre, uomo manesco e irascibile dedito all’alcol, che gli suscita vera e propria (esagerata) rabbia.
Rabbia che scompare appena fuori dall’ambiente domestico, dove invece si presenta quasi implume, agnello.
E data la sua esasperata sensibilità, non ha vita facile ad adattarsi, a inserirsi, a fare parte.


St Joseph’s Marist College.

È l’età dei primi turbamenti, vuoi per la religione e vuoi ancor più per la sessualità, il senso di inadeguatezza e il senso di colpa, vita amore e morte.
Con chi parlarne, con chi condividere?
Amare è essere in una gabbia, correre avanti e indietro come un povero babbuino disorientato.
Il suo paese è in pieno apartheid, e il nostro giovane bianco anche su questo tema non riesce ad abbracciare la posizione dominante della sua razza.

Ne risente l’educazione scolastica che procede in solitario e autosufficienza: quasi come se John vivesse già nell’attesa di partire per l'Europa.


Ros e Freek, nati nel Karoo, sulla spiaggia di Strandfontein – la prima volta che hanno visto il mare.

[Pakinam Mahmoud · Rating 2 out of 5]

ملخص الكتاب كالآتي:
"أنا كنت بلعب مع صحابي،بابا وحش،ماما حلوة..
جده كان عنده مزرعة..خالتي وقعت ورجليها اتكسرت وبعدين ماتت.."
المفروض إن الكتاب مذكرات لكويتزي من أيام طفولته والصراحة الحاجات اللي كتبها لا تستحق أن تُكتب في كتاب من ٢٠٠ صفحة أو بمعني أصح لا تستحق أن تُكتب أصلاً!
كتاب ممل ومش مفيد ولا ينصح به..

[Jean-Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boyhood is a book of contrasts. Young vs. old. Mother vs. son. Afrikaans vs. English. Country life vs. city life. Black vs. white. The childhood Coetzee describes would have been the childhood of someone my grandfather's age, but I could nevertheless make connections to my own. Gone were the days of railway work and radio serials, but a haircut, to my embarrassment, still always seemed to turn out to be too short. And yes, Afrikaners still don't call anyone more than few years older than themselves by their name or refer to them as 'you.' There were musings on cricket, and farm life, and the divides created by apartheid, but because this isn't strict autobiography--has any of it been invented?--I got about halfway before beginning to crave a more substantial narrative thread.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inside the front cover of Coetzee's Boyhood, in the police line-up of ejaculatory blurbs -- which I tend to find outrageously embarrassing -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is alleged to have called the book 'a liturgy of wisdom.' (Like me, you probably have a hunch that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the pimply-faced geek in school who never had a date and spent his lunch hour doing geometric proofs with the head of the math department.) Newsday, meanwhile, says it's comprised of 'pithy urgent sentences from which emotion seems to explode.' (So wear your rain poncho or you'll get covered in emotion. Yuck.) Good ol' Michiko Kakutani scoured the earth for histrionic adverb-adjective combos and came up with 'fiercely revealing' and 'bluntly unsentimental.' I'd gladly agree with the latter but was sadly immune to any fierceness in this book. In fact, it was mostly fiercely perfunctory in my opinion, which, it should be noted -- in the interest of full disclosure -- is not regularly published in The New York Times and may be fiercely deficient.

I was lured into checking out those blurbs because I found myself without any strong feelings whatsoever about Boyhood, and I wanted to see what was causing its fans to get off. Sure, it's an okay, entirely palatable autobiography. (There's a blurb for you. 'Entirely palatable!' - David K.) It's not a difficult slog, by any means. But the problem is that, if, before reading, you were to imagine to yourself what an autobiography of Coetzee's childhood would be like, this is exactly the sort of thing you'd come up with. Spare, unemotional, prosaic, insightful but oddly removed.

In his allegorical novels, his detachment and clinical analysis work just fine. They actually serve the material very well. But here, where he's reflecting upon his childhood, I guess you'd hope he'd invest the telling with a little animation, a hint of passion or energy, and attempt at least to convince us that the ten-year-old Coetzee wasn't as grim and emotionally ascetic as the sixty-five-year-old Coetzee. But maybe he was a tiny Nobel laureate even then. (Fiercely unchildlike?) It probably didn't help to imbue his childhood with liveliness when he chose to write the autobiography in the third person. It keeps the whole enterprise very arm's-length and white-gloved. (As a stylistic device, the once-removed narration also makes the readers a little skeptical at the authenticity of the memoir. Is it puffed-up, over-dramatized? Of course, most autobiographies are to some extent, but it feels more conspicuous in this format.)

This makes it sound like I didn't like this book. Not true. It's just that Coetzee has kind of built up expectations for me: I want to really, really like his stuff, not just think it's okay. Plus, I probably didn't get all I could out of this thing in that it discusses the finer points of race and caste in South Africa, the history and social composition of which I know little about. The only things I know about South Africa are apartheid, Mandela, and that 'Sun City' song by Steven Van Zandt (remember that?). But these are all very vague concepts in my mind because I am (apparently) a self-obsessed American who is ignorant about the world around him. Sure, when I was splayed on the couch reading this thing, I could've gotten up and wiki'd 'South Africa' but I wasn't motivated enough, so the subtleties of Afrikans, 'Coloured People,' 'Natives,' and the English were mostly lost on me. I don't think a familiarity with these distinctions is essential to enjoying the book, but it surely couldn't hurt. And in one chapter he talks a bunch about cricket, and I was, like, 'Who cares?' I have no idea how cricket is played so I couldn't even conjure up any approximate images in my head of what Coetzee was talking about.

The format of the book is generally one of vignettes. Each chapter usually serves as a stand-alone, non-cumulative story of his childhood about one or more subjects. It's almost like an autobiographical short story collection. I think this is probably a good route for recollecting young childhood because let's face it... our memories of that time are pretty scattershot, and thus we aren't able to understand the true correlative effect of our experiences because some of them are missing or incomplete. So, all in all, the episodic nature of the book is a good strategy, but it was still a little bland.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find it amazing that there can be so much content in a 166-page book, and that the result is so spellbinding and perfect. J.M. Coetzee's "Boyhood: scenes from provincial life" is a portrait of the author as a 10-year-old boy growing up in South Africa. I have never read a more insightful analysis of a child's thinking and emerging personality; well, it is hard to find this level of psychological profundity in any writing. At the same time, the novel gives an amazingly rich and deep depiction of the South African society, with its class and racial divides.

Mr. Coetzee, in this "fictionalized autobiography" writes about a 10-year-old boy in the third person. The "he" is little John Coetzee, a precocious child, who loves and hates his mother and is ashamed of his father. The author reaches to the deepest and most private layers of a child's psyche, layers that one is usually too embarrassed to get to. One of the magnificent passages describes how the boy creates his first memories (yes, creates and edits them). The essential question are raised: Who am I? Where do I belong? As the author writes: "What he does not yet know is why he is in the world." The boy tries to figure out how the world works - who the good people are. He experiences something almost like the first love, and is fascinated by the beauty and mystery of other children's bodies.

The year is about 1950, just after the United Party's downfall and the ascent of the National Party rule. The boy lives in a society that is racially much more complex than that of the U.S. and probably of most countries in the world. The racial divides are between four distinct groups: the English, the Afrikaners, the "Coloureds", and the "Natives". Mr. Coetzee shows the racial fissures in the South African society sharply yet subtly. So many books in which the well-meaning authors try to present the problems of race on hundreds of crudely written and superficial pages read like predictable sermons. Here, the author writes four sentences about the meaning of the word "mustn't", and these four sentences perceptively convey the nature of racial inequality.

I can pleasantly waste about two hours of my life reading 166 pages of Connelly, Kellerman, or Grafton. I have spent about 12 hours over four days to read 166 pages of "Boyhood". These were some of the best spent 12 hours in my life.

Five stars.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boyhood is the name of a film by Richard Linklater that most people feel is one of the best of this past year, and I haven't seen it yet. It is not based on this memoir, which I guess might be classified as auto-fiction, too, because it is written in the third person. It's the first of three (so far) in a series of growing up memoirs, followed by Youth and Summerime, both of which I purchased in hardcover just as they came out and have been gathering dust on my shelf ever almost ever since. Coetzee is the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he's one of my all time favorite writers. His Waiting for the Barbarians, an allegory about power, political and sexual, is one of the best books I have ever read. Foe takes Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe and tells it from the position of the mute native Friday. Disgrace tells a devastating tale of sexual power as a university English professor is dismissed from his position for an affair with one of his students. The Master of St. Petersburg is a novel about Dostoevsky, and Coetzee is an heir of the great Russian writer's major themes and his anguish, as well as of Kafka and similarly brilliant and brooding souls. I love all of the Coetzee novels I have read, and I have read many, but every time I picked up this book I couldn't get far in it, it was so distant and bleak and unhappy. And let me tell ya, most of the novels above are bleak but gorgeously written.

Boyhood is about Coetzee's early years in provincial South Africa, in Worcester, and it's dry and hard there and no one is happy, not the carefree time we get in some memoirs. The young John is private, brooding, mirthless, living with a mother he loves but is not close to, a younger brother he doesn't connect to, and a father he hates. He has few friends. He is the smartest boy in his grade, maybe his whole school, but school is also not engaging, not great for him; it's pretty oppressive.

So! Fun, right? Feel like reading it just for kicks? In this intense memoir we get the background for how the ideas he engages with in his novels came about: colonialism, racism, issues of representation, the meaning of life. Young John is filled with guilt and fear and rage throughout his young life. He tries to fight all these emotions by ordering his life severely, by working hard, striving to "rise above" his circumstances. I am an ex-Calvinist and this severity seems familiar to me, but Coetzee is sort of a non-religious (I think) Calvinist, wracked as he is by fear and guilt.

In spite of these terrible emotions, young John thinks of himself as possibly having a special destiny, which he mainly gets from literature, heroic fantasies and comic books and the heroism of sports, like rugby and cricket, though he is just an average athlete. But here is where you see the tone and subtlety of his tale. He's self-deprecating throughout. He is not without humor in mocking his young arrogance and anguish, his extreme self absorption. How could he think of himself as better than others coming from where he has come, his parents, his schooling, this arid veld?

At one point, introduced to Roman history and literature, he decides he is a Roman Catholic, though his family is atheist and he knows nothing about religion. That he hangs on to this weird notion is in part because were he to admit he wasn't Catholic would be humiliating. He is overly dramatic about this possible outing of his lie; if they reveal his lie and ignorance, he says he will refuse to go to school and threatens to kill himself. He's an intense boy, wracked by everything. But he also has many humorous misunderstandings about the world, including one about how babies are born; he misunderstands something his mother says about how babies come in out of "the backside" so he thinks they are born anally, pushed out of the stomach, a notion he weirdly hangs on to for years, even faced with friends' mockery of him. If he is right, he is right! There are lots of revelations of his arrogance and ignorance that are subtly humorous, if not exactly hilarious. You almost never get laughs from Coetzee, but there are smiles to be had here. And you admire his honesty in mocking his young self. He's as vicious about himself as his young self is of others.

But as he says, "sometimes the gloom lifts": He does love some things intensely in his quiet way; his mother, whom he is also anguished about, as with so many things. who is also unhappy with her husband and disappointed her life wouldn't be more. He loves cricket and rugby. He loves reading stories. From an early age; he sees he is suited for nothing but teaching, for school. He also loves nature, especially his father's family farm. He "belongs" to the farm, though it will never be his, he is just a guest there. But he loves the country and feels happier there than any other place. He only mentions a sense of belonging with respect to his mother. Not even in school, really, as the schools he attends are terrible and he feels so isolated from the other kids and teachers. But in nature and with sports he finds some release.

One of the interesting things about this story is that issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, barely on his radar as a young kid, emerge throughout his growing up story set in apartheid South Africa. He is Afrikaans, but mostly wishes to be British, he wants to be superior, he's sort of smug about wanting to be set apart. I admire this honesty; it's like his ignorance about being "Roman" Catholic or how babies are born. He's young and naive but we see emerge from his life story the themes in his work as he begins to reflect on them.

Why did I have trouble getting into this book? Well, it's sorta bleak! For a memoir, it initially feels distant, in third person, though this choice feels ultimately perfect for him. But he's a Nobel prizewinning writer and this is as elegantly written as anything else he has done. And In the end of this first installment of his life story, we see his "destiny" emerging, what really does come to be his specialness. His aunt Annie dies, he goes to the funeral, and he recalls his aunt telling his mother that he is a special boy, this aunt who taught for more than 40 years, who leaves behind a small library of books. In the end Coetzee also becomes a teacher, and of course a writer, but at the time he thinks: "How will he keep them all in his head, all the books, all the people, all the stories? And if he does not remember them, who will?" (166).

This isn't one of Coetzee's greatest books, but especially if you like Coetzee, it is interesting.

[David Carrasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Qué ocurre cuando hasta tu apellido te traiciona?

John Coetzee, diez años, blanco, sudafricano, inglés de pura cepa pero con un apellido afrikáner que lo avergüenza. Hijo de una madre que idolatra y un padre que desprecia. En la escuela, un solitario que finge encajar. En casa, un chico atrapado entre el miedo y la culpa. Infancia es la crónica de un niño que no encaja en su país, en su familia… ni siquiera dentro de sí mismo.

Coetzee escribe su autobiografía en tercera persona y en presente. No es "yo", sino "John". No es "fui", sino "es". Como si Coetzee, el narrador, necesitara observarse a sí mismo desde fuera, sin permitir que la nostalgia o la autoindulgencia empañaran su memoria. Es casi como leer un diario, pero uno sin romanticismo, donde la autocrítica se convierte en la principal protagonista. La distancia es un muro de hielo entre él y su propia historia, pero el presente del tiempo verbal lo encierra en un bucle de sufrimiento que no ha terminado. Y ese es el truco maestro: no estamos leyendo memorias, estamos atrapados en la mente de un niño que se siente extranjero en su propia vida.

La Sudáfrica de los años 50 es un mundo de brutalidad normalizada. La violencia no es solo la del apartheid, sino la de los castigos físicos en la escuela, la frialdad de un padre venido a menos, la rigidez de una sociedad donde todo debe encajar en su sitio. Pero John no encaja. Vive con sus padres en una casa humilde y con un hermano menor del que siente celos, pero lo que domina su vida no son los lazos familiares cálidos, sino una relación tensa con su padre y un amor casi silencioso pero evidente por su madre. Su padre no es exactamente un monstruo, pero John lo mira como si lo fuera: un adulto derrotado, una advertencia. Con bigote. En la escuela, se mueve entre el desprecio por sus compañeros y el temor constante a la violencia. Es un niño demasiado sensible para su entorno, demasiado despiadado en sus juicios. Y la novela es, en esencia, el retrato de esa lucha interna: la de un chaval que se siente extranjero en su propia vida. Detesta el bóer de su apellido, teme que su madre se humille ante los demás, siente repulsión por la figura débil y fracasada de su padre. La independencia que busca es pura contradicción: quiere liberarse de su familia, pero se aferra a su madre como a un dios

La prosa de Coetzee no acaricia, disecciona. Fría como el mármol. Tajante como una verdad que no querías oír. Frases cortas, directas, sin un gramo de grasa innecesaria. No hay sentimentalismo, solo hechos desnudos y un niño que los procesa con la lógica implacable de la infancia: si mi padre es débil, es despreciable. Si mi madre es fuerte, me da vergüenza. Si amo a mi madre, no debo demostrárselo. Si los demás niños aceptan la violencia, yo también debería hacerlo, pero no puedo. Si Dios existe, me vigila y me castiga. Cada línea es una pequeña bomba de relojería, una confesión brutalmente honesta de lo que significa crecer con una sensibilidad que te convierte en un extraño para los demás.

Esta no es una novela para quienes buscan una historia convencional con su principio, nudo y desenlace. Aquí no hay una "trama" como tal. No la necesita. Esto no es un telefilm de domingo por la tarde, es un mapa de cicatrices. Aquí solo hay episodios fragmentados que nos meten de lleno en la mente de John. Y sin embargo, hay un hilo conductor: la alienación. Infancia es la historia de alguien que ya intuye lo que será el resto de su vida: un destierro permanente. Porque John no encaja. Ni en su casa, ni en su país, ni en su propia piel, como si su existencia fuera uno de esos disfraces que nunca termina de quedarte bien. Para algunos lectores, este ritmo pausado y reflexivo puede ser una barrera. Para otros, es precisamente lo que hace que el libro sea tan absorbente: la sensación de estar dentro de la mente de un niño que analiza el mundo con una claridad dolorosa.

En mi opinión, esa lentitud es una de las grandes fortalezas del libro. Coetzee se toma el tiempo necesario para ahondar en lo que no se dice, en los pensamientos y sentimientos más ocultos de su protagonista. Y es que, en muchos sentidos, Infancia es más una introspección que una narración tradicional. Cada escena parece una instantánea congelada en el tiempo, y esa congelación, esa contemplación de los pequeños gestos, nos habla mucho más de lo que una trama más dinámica podría hacerlo.

Coetzee no es el único que ha convertido su infancia en materia literaria. Proust reconstruyó la suya con nostalgia y lirismo. Kafka convirtió la alienación en un destino inevitable. Pero Coetzee hace algo distinto: deja la piel en la página y nos obliga a sentir la incomodidad de ser un niño que no pertenece a ninguna parte, de lo que significa crecer con la certeza de que nunca serás la persona que los demás esperan que seas. En ese sentido, recuerda a las memorias de Knausgård, aunque sin la verborrea.

Y ahí está el golpe final: Infancia no es solo la historia de John Coetzee. Es la historia de cualquiera que haya crecido sintiéndose fuera de lugar. La historia de todos los que alguna vez miraron a su familia, a su país, a su reflejo en el espejo y pensaron: "Yo no pertenezco aquí".




Reseña de Infancia (Trilogía autobiográfica de J.M. Coetzee - Escenas de una vida de provincias I)
Reseña de Juventud (Trilogía autobiográfica de J.M. Coetzee - Escenas de una vida de provincias II)
Reseña de Verano (Trilogía autobiográfica de J.M. Coetzee - Escenas de una vida de provincias III)

[Peiman · Rating 2 out of 5]

پسرانگی گویا قراره خاطراتی از کودکی در آفریقای جنوبی باشه، اما هر کاری کردم بهم نچسبید، یعنی هی خوندم گفتم الان یه چیزی میشه، یه اتفاقی می‌افته، اما نشد که نشد حالا مشکل از من بود یا از کتاب نمیدانم.ه

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 4 out of 5]

بعد از مدت ها دوباره به سراغ کوتزی رفتم،زندگی و زمانه‌ی مایکل کی بسیار عالی هست اما اقای فو چندان نظر من رو جلب نکرد.
اما این کتاب رو که شروع کردم ، روایت خیلی خوبی داشت و یک نفس تا انتها ادامه دادمش ، از بُعد بصری که تصویر سازی می‌کردم یاد فیلم پسرانگی می‌افتادم.
هم زندگی‌نامه‌ی خوبی هست هم روایت خوبی داره و هم سوژه‌ی همیشگی مولف (اپارتاید) در اون هست.

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Infancia parece ser una novela autobiográfica, aunque la forma narrativa elegida es la tercera persona. Para mis preferencias literarias, eso no constituye un buen comienzo, ya que las memorias no es un género que me interese mucho.

La historia se inicia cuando la familia, incluido el protagonista de 10 años, se mudan de Ciudad del Cabo a una urbanización en las afueras de Worcester, donde su padre, abogado, ha conseguido empleo. El lugar no es presentado con mucho afecto, a diferencia del lugar en el mundo del niño, la granja de su familia paterna, Vöelfontein.

Los aspectos más ricos de la novela son la descripción de los padres y otros familiares, y los complejos vínculos que mantiene con ellos, así como los entresijos y tensiones en las relaciones entre los que perciben como ingleses y los afrikaners, descendientes de los primeros colonizadores holandeses; hay también interesantes observaciones sobre la gente de color, una mundo que se presenta con afecto aunque incomprensible y misterioso. Algunas de estas cuestiones, aunque interesantes, hoy parecen anacrónicas a la luz del rumbo que tomó la historia posterior de Sudáfrica.

El niño no es demasiado simpático ni querible, aunque es muy observador y trata permanentemente de ordenar mentalmente el mundo a partir de los indicios que va obteniendo.

La escritura de Coetzee, es, como siempre, impecable; y se le debe reconocer que si efectivamente es autobiográfica, ha tenido la honestidad de no idealizar en absoluto su yo-niño.

Salvo los aspectos mencionados, la novela no me despertó mucho interés; y si logré terminarla fue por la calidad en la escritura del autor. Aunque entiendo que cada uno tiene sus preferencias respecto a los géneros y estilos literarios.

Qué tengan un buen día. 🙂

[notgettingenough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make note to learn something about South African history and culture. It does the reader no favours to be as ignorant as I while reading this.

Underline note of some years ago to read Disgrace. Watched twice, but still not read. Boyhood has given me an idea as to how one might understand the odd scenario of that book, woman raped by black men and consequently pregnant, determines to become the 3rd wife of one of the rapists. Perhaps this will afford her some degree of safety and the possibility of staying in her home…though it will no longer be her home. We are given to believe that the woman is doing this as penance for being white. It is her necessary apology.

Here in Boyhood, there is much discussion of the difference between groups, including the Coloured people who are part of his life in a mysterious and uncomfortable way. Clearly Coetzee was a child disturbed by the racism that was part of his life. I wonder if, as an adult writer, he assuages his own guilt by this story. What can white men really give up, compared with white women? The total humiliation of the woman in Disgrace, perhaps that’s the sacrifice he can make. The author makes amends.

The more I read of fictionalised memoir, the more I come to the realisation that it is free to be truthful when factual memoir is not. Coetzee is ruthless in his descriptions of all in this account, including himself. Nobody is nice, his childhood is horrible but when I could imagine myself whining as I told such a story, he is merely dispassionately descriptive.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...

[Haytham ⚜️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"لقد تُرك وحده يفكر بذلك. كيف سيحافظ على كل ما يعرفه في رأسه، كل الكتب، كل الناس، كل القصص؟

وإذا لم يتذكرها هو فمن سيتذكرها؟"

[Ravi Gangwani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coetzee, for me is really an angel. He knows how to touch the heart. Most of the sections of the book were so absorbing that I felt the need to pause for a moment to breath.

His tender heart, Summer Vacations on farms, money crisis of childhood, love for books, sport fanaticism, bully kids in school, attention on wealthy kids in school, scout guiding, differences between Catholics and Jews, mother's love and her sacrifices for him, fantasies during school days for sex and how babies come, the blood of white and black people, Afrikaans and Coetzee's unwillingness to acceptance or denial of their culture, English culture and urge to into sophisticated meshes of it, burning of heart by seeing poor people, animal killing, death of an Aunt abandoned in obscurity of illness and funeral and later dead display of emotions, thirst for ambition, ineptitude of playing outdoor games, mediocrity in school...

It was exactly my story, at most of the places.... Except the place, time, people but same idiosyncrasy, interest... I really wish I could meet Coetzee one day and tell him how I felt the resemblance of my childhood in this book.

Coetzee, for me, is JESUS.

There was no story but profoundly strewn descriptions...

[Gabril · Rating 5 out of 5]

Asciutto e penetrante, Coetzee racconta stralci della propria infanzia sudafricana. Lo fa scrivendo in terza persona, usando il tempo presente, ovvero il tempo antinarrativo per eccellenza (è una scelta frequente di Coetzee). Eppure il racconto c'è, l'ambiente fisico e umano pure. Ma l'autore non vi indulge, non è necessario.
Quel che conta è l'interiorità: i pensieri, le emozioni sempre trattenute, introiettate, l'esplorazione dei limiti, le considerazioni su se stesso e sul mondo, i legami familiari e le accese idiosincrasie. Esperienze radicali, che diventeranno fondamentali per la formazione successiva (ne vedremo gli esiti nel secondo libro autobiografico: Gioventù).
Una battaglia di resistenza, così appare la cruda esperienza della fanciullezza. Una cosa estremamente seria, in qualche modo definitiva, proprio perché definisce un carattere, descrive le linee di un destino.
Questo bambino taciturno, solitario, in competizione estrema col mondo che lo circonda e tende a plasmarlo secondo le proprie linee direttrici, questo bambino scontroso e determinato, intimamente refrattario alla compiacenza è l'immagine precisa dell'adulto, dello scrittore Coetzee, come (non) lo conosciamo: schivo e appartato. E infatti, lo scopriamo qui, "scrivere per lui non è come dispiegare le ali; al contrario, è come raggomitolarsi, farsi più piccolo e inoffensivo possibile".
Un libro intenso e vero, dove lo stile sorvegliatissimo sa raggiungere il perfetto equilibrio tra il sentimento di sé, l'interiorità assoluta, e il modo di darne conto a chi sta fuori.

[أحمد شاكر · Rating 4 out of 5]

لما قرأت لهذا الرجل روايته (خزي)، تمنيت ساعتها أن أكون أنا كاتبها، وقلت: لا بد أن هذا الرجل يشبهني في شيء وأشبهه. وقررت متابعة القراءة له. واقتنيت في انتظار البرابرة، وحياة وزمن مايكل ك، من معرض القاهرة للكتاب أول هذا العام، واقتنيت أيام الصبا هذا من مكتبة مغمورة في وسط البلد، بسعر زهيد، وبدأت متابعة القراءة لكويتزي مرة أخري مع أيام الصبا.

وقد كان ما توقعته تماما: إنه يشبهني وأشبهه، وشعرت كأن مذكراته هي مذكراتي، لو قررت كتابتها فعلا. فهناك صفة إذا ما وجدت، سيترتب عليها أغلب بناء الشخصية؛ الخجل. إنه خجول، وأنا مثله. (يحكي عن فترة صباه حتي المراهقة)، يكذب، ويحب أمه، متخذا موقفا من أبيه. واختلفنا معا في نقطة حيوية: إنه يحب الرياضيات، ويكره الجغرافيا والتاريخ، عكسي تماما، في هذه النقطة.

وهناك نقطة جد واضحة، فكويتزي يمتلك ذاكرة بصرية حادة. كل الصور مكتملة وواضحة، كل الأسماء حاضرة، وكل التفاصيل الدقيقة.

عالم كويتزي رائع، وجميل. لا يمل منه.

[Dagio_maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Tutto ciò che fa a Worcester, a casa o a scuola, lo porta a credere che l’infanzia non sia nient’altro che un periodo in cui bisogna stringere i denti e resistere.”


”Viene da una famiglia anomala della quale vergognarsi, dove non solo non si picchiano i bambini, ma ci si rivolge agli anziani chiamandoli con il nome di battesimo, e dove nessuno va in chiesa e le scarpe si portano tutti i giorni.”

Ecco il racconto dell’infanzia del futuro Nobel Coetzee, dal momento in cui si trasferì con la famiglia da Città del Capo in quel di Worcester (oggi Western Cape).
Un’infanzia vissuta nella vergogna per non essere come la maggioranza.
Un mondo segreto di pensieri, sensazioni, pulsioni soffocate che nessuno deve conoscere.
Le difficoltà comuni del crescere, dunque, sommate ad un contesto sociale complicato per le tensioni di una convivenza difficile: afrikaner, inglesi, meticci, nativi.
Lingue e religioni che si sfidano; stili di vita che chiudono i recinti in un sistema d’inclusione ed esclusione.

Una scrittura a denti stretti.
La distanza della terza persona che narra crea un clima di freddezza: algido l’autore, diffidente chi legge che fatica a sintonizzarsi.

«Chissà perché Coetzee lo ha fatto?» mi chiedevo leggendo.
La scrittura autobiografica – si sa- comporta lo sforzo della confessione. Quello spogliarsi a volte impudico davanti a tutti. Certo c’è chi ha bisogno di esibirsi per narcisismo congenito ma c’è anche chi lo ritiene un compito arduo ma necessario come percorso di auto-analisi.
Ma Coetzee perché lo ha fatto quando si sente chiaramente che non c’è nessuno di questi bisogni?
Il tono è sforzato. Forse – ipotizzo- gli gravava fare quell’ammissione di aver provato gli estremi dell’amore e su cui verte un po’ tutto lo scritto: l’odio profondo per il padre e il legame morboso con la madre.
La mia lettura è, pertanto, proseguita con imbarazzo: come presentarsi a casa di qualcuno senza essere invitati.
Coetzee bambino sperimenta una scrittura che costruisce una corazza s’una personalità già di per sé introversa:
“Scrivere per lui non è come dispiegare le ali; al contrario, è come raggomitolarsi, farsi piú piccolo e inoffensivo possibile”

Cercavo tracce che guidassero le mie future letture e/o rischiarissero le passate di quest’autore che ammiro tantissimo. Ciò che ho trovato è l’origine di ciò che si dice e si è detto di lui: uomo schivo e riservato.
Testimoni lo hanno avuto come vicino a delle cene ufficiali (ad una delle poche che ha presenziato) dicono di non aver avuto il piacere di sentire mai la sua voce per tutta la serata.
Riluttante al pubblico tanto che avere un suo libro autografato è di tale rarità da poter sistemare economicamente una famiglia.
Un po’ asociale dunque.
Ma che importa di fronte al fatto che è lo scrittore di opere che hanno descritto in modo così preciso lo stato d’animo di una società dilaniata dai contrasti?

[Danesda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitivamente de mis autores favoritos, un libro maravilloso. Con mucha fuerza argumental e impecablemente escrito.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTF8aGtDsnP/

[Juan Nalerio · Rating 4 out of 5]

En Infancia, JM Coetzee nos abre la puerta de su vida y relata sus vivencias de niño en Ciudad del Cabo.
Su casa, la granja, su colegio y la relación con sus familiares pasan en esta novela autobiográfica muy bien escrita que nos permite conocer al Coetzee persona. (lo que él permite que conozcamos)
Muy recomendado.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once you start to read this book, you won´t be able to stop it. Looking forward for the second volume of this trilogy.

3* Elizabeth Costello
4* Disgrace
4* Waiting for the Barbarians
3* A Ilha
4* The Master of Petersburg
3* Slow Man
4* Age of Iron
4* Boyhood (Scenes from Provincial Life #1)
TR Youth (Scenes from Provincial Life #2)
TR Dusklands
TR Life & Times of Michael K
TR Summertime (Scenes from Provincial Life #3)
TR The Schooldays of Jesus
TR L'Abattoir de verre

[Eva Guerrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me recomendaron a Coetzee hace unos meses. Ya sé que no necesita recomendación, que es un Nobel, pero aún así yo nunca lo había leído, así que quise comenzar por esta trilogía. También me avisaron de que el primero de los tres era el más flojo, pero obviamente quería llevar un orden, y dentro de que efectivamente no me ha parecido una maravilla, sí ha conseguido engancharme con su forma de escribir (y de describir). Sin duda, seguiré con él.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything I read from Coetzee has a profound impact on me. His words are so cutting, direct, affective, sincere, clear and concise. His ability to draw me in, paint a picture and transport me to wherever and whatever he is writing about astounds me. This is an autobiographical work with Coetzee himself as the narrator, referring to himself in the book as "he". I really like this approach because he is telling the reader about his life and the experiences that formed the man that he is today but as an observer, almost as if he is observing himself.

This is a short, easy read but still fantastically beautiful. "Boyhood" is a clear account of his life as an exceptionally intelligent boy growing up in South Africa in the 1950s. It is a bold, compelling, funny, raw account of a boy's life who is tormented by guilt, fear and confusion. How he feels as a boy and his observances of the world around him remind me of what it was like to look at the world through child's eyes and know that everything was not the way that it was supposed to be and to wonder how it would all turn out one day.

[Eslam الغني · Rating 3 out of 5]

ذكريات كويتزي عن أيام صباه وبواكير مراهقته،جاءت في معظمها جذابة وإن شابها في مواضع قدر من ملل.

والكتاب كما جاء على ظهر الغلاف في إقتباس من أحد الصحف"لوحة شخصية واقعية وغنية عن الطفولة" هنا الطفولة تشتمل على البراءة والنظرة الدهشة المتسائلة،كما تشتمل على القسوة الكامنة والعنف المختزن تحت جلد ولد صغير نشأ محاطا بقدر هائل من المتناقضات،ناهيك عن الكراهية التي كانت كامنة عند كل منعطف ووراء كل جدار.

يتسم أسلوب كويتزى هنا بالحسم وربما الفجاجة في الحكم على الناس والأشياء وهوما يمنح لنبرته في الكتابة قدرا من الصدق،لا نجده في كتاباتنا العربية المماثلة

عموما ومنعا للإطالة ذكريات كويتزي عن صباه البعيد مثلت بالنسبة لي قراءة سلسة وممتعة بقدر.

فالرجل لا يخذلني أبدا ولذلك أعُد نفسي من قرائه الأوفياء.

[Chris Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in Coetzee's sparse prose, this short novel encapsulates the angst of the author's childhood, which he narrates in the third person as an onlooker, critically observing his younger self. The harsh contradictions of the Apartheid system in 1950's South Africa provide a compelling backdrop to the story of a child who is grappling to come to terms with his place in the world. Touches of humour invigorate an otherwise austere narrative, as the author leads the reader through a courageous self examination of his formative years and his uneasy relationships with his family, his peers and the world around him.

[Marica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una savana brucata dagli erbivori
La copertina mostra fiumi azzurri e verdi boschi, ma l'infanzia di Coetzee ricorda di più una savana brucata accuratamente dagli erbivori. Come si dice parafrasando, i periodi felici non hanno storia, quelli infelici hanno bisogno di parole per essere elaborati e se possibile superati: così Coetzee ci racconta la sua infelice infanzia, con una precisione e senso della misura ammirevoli. Era un bambino intelligente che analizzava attentamente le dinamiche familiari, subendole e ferendo a sua volta; consapevole dei difetti degli altri come dei propri; spaventato e orgoglioso. Una delle paure principali era quella di essere trasferito in una scuola afrikaans, lui che, di origine afrikaans, aveva fatto sua la cultura inglese e trovava insopportabilmente grossolani i compagni di origine boera. Uno dei desideri più grandi era vivere nella fattoria dello zio: entrambi i genitori venivano da famiglie proprietarie di fattorie e lui si sentiva esiliato nella piccola città, che non era Città del Capo, dalla quale a sua volta era esiliato, per via del lavoro del padre. Rapporto difficile col padre, perchè nonostante la buona cultura e gli inizi promettenti non aveva saputo gestire il denaro e aveva mandato la famiglia in rovina. Rapporto di odio e amore con la madre, che lo adorava e avrebbe fatto di tutto per lui: ma il troppo amore spesso non viene apprezzato (da ricordare: non se ne fa mai una giusta). Molto interessante la graduale scoperta del bambino delle diversità razziali e sociali: ci sono i sudafricani di origine inglese e quelli di origine olandese, mondi da lui percepiti molto diversi; poi i meticci, che in realtà erano tutti molto neri ai suoi occhi e i nativi, cioè i boscimani, percepiti giustamente come i veri signori della terra: non perchè la possedessero, no: perchè emanati dalla terra, figli di quella terra. E'bello, la cosa più bella del libro, capire come i coloni bianchi e il bambino percepissero questo legame superiore e rispettassero il senso di dignità di queste figure che facevano il loro lavoro, certamente duro e poco ricompensato, dando l'impressione di farlo non per necessità ma perchè lo volevano fare (come un personaggio di Corto Maltese, anche lui nero e lucido).
Coetzee è uno scrittore notevole, di ottima prosa ma soprattutto di grande lucidità.

[Arybo ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

La tenuta intorno alla fattoria è enorme, al punto che quando, nel corso delle loro battute di caccia, lui e suoi padre arrivano a uno steccato che taglia il letto di un fiume, e suo padre annuncia che hanno raggiunto il confine tra Voëlfontein e la tenuta limitrofa, lui è colto alla sprovvista. Nella sua immaginazione Voëlfonstein è un regno a sé stante. Non basterebbe una vita per conoscerla tutta, conoscerne ogni pietra e ogni cespuglio. Il tempo non basta mai quando si ama un luogo con una simile vorace passione.
Voëlfontein la conosce meglio d’estate, quando si distende piatta sotto una luce uniforme, accecante, che si riversa giù dal cielo. Eppure Voëlfontein ha anche i suoi misteri, misteri che non appartengono alla notte e all’ombra, ma ai pomeriggi torridi, quando i miraggi danzano all’orizzonte e l’aria stessa gli canta nelle orecchie.


Voëlfontein, tenuta dello zio di Coetzee


Coetzee si immerge (e ci fa immergere) nel mondo di provincia del Sudafrica, dove persone di diversa ascendenza vivono in contatto, sebbene divise da credi, religioni e usanze diverse. La storia è narrata dal punto di vista di un ragazzino saccente e troppo presuntuoso, che tratta male la madre anche se la “ama” e disprezza il padre, che scialacqua i soldi della moglie. Il ragazzino vive inizialmente in un paese vicino Città del Capo, qui frequenta la scuola e viene a conoscenza della vita degli afrikaans e dei meticci, li osserva quasi con occhio scientifico, cercando di capire come vivano. D’altra parte però, si sente nelle sue parole una freddezza mentale che lo allontana da queste persone, anche se ripete varie volte che si vergogna per come vengono trattate. Il ragazzino vive nel Sudafrica post seconda guerra mondiale, tifa per gli inglesi ed ama i russi, adora il cricket. Vive in provincia ed è il primo della classe. Quando si trasferisce a Città del Capo, perde il privilegio di essere il più bravo della scuola, perde sicurezza in sé perché non trova persone che lo elogino, si stacca ancora di più dalla figura del padre, mentre il suo rapporto con la madre si fa contorto: da una parte la appoggia, dall’altra la guarda con compassione.

Non posso dire che sia stata una bella esperienza leggere i pensieri del ragazzino, e spesso mi veniva da chiudere il libro e mollare. Intere sezioni poco interessanti riprendono vigore con una o due frasi illuminanti, che spingono nella lettura. Sicuramente Coetzee è capace di dar voce a milioni di personaggi, e riesce a farlo bene ache con questo qui.

Ora deliziamoci con la vista di questa bella foto che ho trovato su internet... 😊



• 🕯NEWTs readathon (August 2018): Divination, exceed expectations (read a book under 200 pages)

• All-Over-The-World Book Challenge ✈️, per il paese Sudafrica 🇿🇦

[Osama · Rating 4 out of 5]

يقدم الكاتب جون ماكسويل كويتزي في هذا الكتاب ذكرياته عن زمن الطفولة، قد تحتوي سطور الكتاب على ذكريات حقيقية أو خيالية، لكنها نجحت في رسم لوحة أدبية رائعة لظروف الحياة في جنوب أفريقيا خلال فترة الأربعينات والخمسينات. تجدر الإشارة أن هذا الكتاب هو الجزء الأول من سلسلة مشاهد من الحياة الريفية. وقد سبق أن قدمت مراجعة الجزء الثالث مسبقا وعنوانه زمن الصيف (Summetime).

[Bên Phía Nhà Z]

viết chán dã man

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uniquely written fictional autobiography of Coetzee in Primary School. He uses third person, present tense and ,as he does in Youth, an unnamed narrator. At times each paragraph seemed to be another memory loosely bound within the Chapter's purpose.
This is a boy of softness, aware of his weaknesses and failures, who seethes against a failed father and adores his mother who keeps the family going. He sees himself as an outsider, confused with the actions of adults, fearful of having his own actions noticed and terrified of being punished. But people notice his difference and recognise he will be seen.

[Marcello S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi ci è voluto un po’ per penetrare lo stile refrattario, monocorde e feroce di Coetzee.
E non direi nemmeno di esserci riuscito del tutto.

Ci sono pochissimi dialoghi a delineare il rapporto tempestoso coi genitori, quello con i parenti, l’esperienza scolastica.
Le questioni preponderanti dell’identità e della religione.

Anche se in certi momenti ho pensato “non fa per me, potrei pure fermarmi qui”, in realtà alla fine ammetto di aver subìto un certo fascino e credo leggerò altro di suo. [70/100]

[Bidisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 4.2/5

Every Coetzee is a revelation to me. It is just so pure in its abundance and simplicity, as it is grey and intense. From Disgrace to Summertime to Boyhood, his accounts are evocative, to say the least. A sadness engulfs the reader and stays put.
*
This story is the account of his boyhood in provincial South Africa, where politics and religions and school life overlapped, leading to sardonic results. It makes for a quick read.