Reading 1001 discussion

Rating: 3 Stars
Read: July 2016

This was a short but difficult read and one of many books on the list by Coetzee. This is my second book by him. It is the first book he wrote. The general theme of the book deals with the effects of colonialism, imperialism, and brutality. The book is comprised of two stories in journal form. The first story is about a Vietnam vet and his descent into madness. The second is about a frontiersman, who may have been an ancestor of the author, and his acts of hatred. Overall, not a feel-good sort of book and not for the squeamish.

My review: This novella is in two parts, one following a man who works with Mr. Coetzee in some way, though his exact relationship with Mr. Coetzee was a bit vague. This guy is clearly insane, and his insanity becomes more clear by the end of his narrative. Then the book shifts to an account of Mr. Coetzee, apparently the author's ancestor who took part in the ugly, brutal violence involved in opening new areas of South Africa's interior to colonial exploitation. The book does not shy away from this violence of that time and seems geared towards showing the reader the ugly underbelly of history that might not have been mentioned in school history books. I did like that at least for a while the local native people in this story, a tribe of Bushmen so far resistant to colonial dominance, hold the upper hand with Coetzee and his group. But, of course, Coetzee does his best to exterminate the tribe as soon as he is able in retribution for his bruised pride.
I did not particularly enjoy this book, but I appreciated the depiction of pre-colonial or early-colonial Africa. The first part was weird, and I didn't get as much out of it.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads.

This book, Coetzee's first novel, is made up of two related stories. In the first, a Vietnam veteran and apparently a psychologist or scientist is reporting on experiments and themes in the Vietnam war that descend into serious mental illness. In the second, an early Dutch settler in southern Africa explores the interior and comes into conflict with indigenous people.

Both books contain characters called Coetzee, which is a feature of other works by this author. The Coetzee characters are by no means heroes, but the use of his own name gives a suggestion that the characters are "everyman" for their time. In that respect the book is depressing because it suggests people in developed countries were no closer to understanding or supporting indigenous people in the 1960s than in the 1760s (or even allowing them to survive).

These two short novellas both reflect Coetzee's mature writing style even though this is his first book. He folds in his own name as characters to clarify or confuse the nature of an author and his relationship to his characters. The general theme in both sections is the brutality of human beings to their fellow man, the nature of colonialism and its caste system of innate superiority of those in power. The first section also delves into how brutality brings on mental illness. The second section focuses on the nature of history which records only those parts of the story that serve the correct end goal. Coetzee does a thoroughly good job of showing the master at his most savage and the indigenous people as caught between worlds where their world view is considered inconsequential.

Reason read: botm for Octobere 2025. This was a debut novel of the 2003 Nobel prize winner from South Africa. Dusklands is really two novels, one set during the Vietnam era and the other is set in South Africa during the 1700s. These two novels both examine power struggles and culture clashes; the violence of colonialism and imperialism. This violence is not unique to any one area.

What I hadn't known before is the Coetzee spent time in England and in Texas doing research for writing and that this book came about when he told himself "enough research, start writing.". The writing style is considered to be sharp in its deliverance of cruelty. The writing is original for the narrative, particular for the use of historical documents, the blurring of fiction and history. The characters do not have the normal growth that is looked for in character development but more along the lines of psychological deterioration, especially in the Vietnam novella. In the second one, the character does survive but he does question what he may have done to the culture in his acts of violence. While the stories are set in different times they are connected in the violence and the deterioration of the narrator and reason.

I cannot say that this is a favorite. I think his other works are much better. Nevertheless, this was not hard to read and the themes in this book are those that can be found in his other books. I rated this book a 3.8 based on writing style, originality, character development, plot development, and my enjoyment of the book.

There is a large degree of violence in this book and that might be something that could be hard to tolerate by some readers.