Minutes April book: Foe by J.M. Coetzee

Foe

by J.M.Coetzee

(chosen by Gypsy)

Theme: A classic rewritten




Gypsy chose this book to fit the theme, without reading it first (very unlike her!) So it was with a degree of trepidation that she started to read it.

About the author:

JM (John Maxwell) Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940. He studied at Cape Town and later at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in literature. Since 1972 he has worked as an academic in the  University of Cape Town. He has written many works of fiction, and was awarded his first Booker Prize in 1983. In 1999 he again won Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for Disgrace, becoming the first author to win the award twice in its 31-year history. In 2003, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature..

(general biographical detail from the publisher's website)

What the publisher says about the book:

With the same electrical intensity of language and insight that he brought to Waiting for the Barbarians and The Master of Petersburg, J.M. Coetzee reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe—and in so doing, directs our attention to the seduction and tyranny of storytelling itself.

In 1720 the eminent man of letters Daniel Foe is approached by Susan Barton, lately a castaway on a desert island. She wants him to tell her story, and that of the enigmatic man who has become her rescuer, companion, master and sometimes lover: Cruso. Cruso is dead, and his manservant, Friday, is incapable of speech. As she tries to relate the truth about him, the ambitious Barton cannot help turning Cruso into her invention. For as narrated by Foe—as by Coetzee himself—the stories we thought we knew acquire depths that are at once treacherous, elegant, and unexpectedly moving.

. What we discussed about the book:

• What happened in the end?
• What are the implications of changing someone else's story?
• In what ways is this the story of 'the other' of the Robinson Crusoe story?
• How does this subvert the 'masculine' focus of Robinson Crusoe?
• Does this book defy conventional narrative structure? In what ways?
• Who is Susan?
• Were the 'O's that Friday wrote supposed to represent omega? If so, what does this mean?
• What does this book say about the concept of freedom?
• The role of storytelling

And then we were sidetracked into:

• The power of an author
• At what point did female voices appear in literature? At what point were they actually written by female authors? 
• The role of muses in Greek mythology
• Was this a typical 'Gypsy' book choice?
• Different ways of communicating (e.g. literature, art, music...) and how they all have a knowledge underlying them that makes sense of the raw material
• What does it mean to be the 'author' of a story?

In other news, we discussed:

• Various travels
• Communal nudity bathing experiences

Ratings:
Range: 6 to 8
Average: 7.19

Next book: Only Child (Stranglehold) by Jack Ketchum (chosen by JP)