This is a list of works by or about the writer J.
![House House](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125482968/452087385.jpg)
As he gets older he finds himself growing more and more crabby about language, about slack usage, falling standards. Falling in love, for instance. ‘We fell in love with the house’, friends of his say.
How can you fall in love with a house when the house cannot love you back, he wants to reply? Once you start falling in love with objects, what will be left of real love, lo As he gets older he finds himself growing more and more crabby about language, about slack usage, falling standards. Falling in love, for instance.
‘We fell in love with the house’, friends of his say. How can you fall in love with a house when the house cannot love you back, he wants to reply? Once you start falling in love with objects, what will be left of real love, love as itused to be?
But no one seems to care. People fall in love with tapestries, with old cars.A man contemplates his deep connection to a house.The unfathomable idea of threshing wheat points to a life lost.And a writer ponders the creation of his narrator.Three Stories—'His Man and He’, written as Coetzee’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, ‘A House in Spain’ and ‘Nietverloren’—is the work of a master at his peak. These are stories that embody the essence of our existence.
Three Stories is a sleek little volume of three previously published short stories by award-winning South African-born writer, J M Coetzee, which showcase his literary talent.I. A House in Spain (2000) is a reflection on the parallels between marriage and owning a house. The man who has bought for himself a house in Spain find his attitude altering from scorn for people who profess to falling in love with a house, to feeling something akin to just that for the old homestead on which he begins t Three Stories is a sleek little volume of three previously published short stories by award-winning South African-born writer, J M Coetzee, which showcase his literary talent.I. A House in Spain (2000) is a reflection on the parallels between marriage and owning a house. The man who has bought for himself a house in Spain find his attitude altering from scorn for people who profess to falling in love with a house, to feeling something akin to just that for the old homestead on which he begins to lavish attention.II. Nietverloren (2002) is a lament on the loss of the traditional use of the South African farmland for a crop of a very different kind.III. He and His Man (2003) imagines the life of Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday on their return to England, as Robin lives vicariously on the travels Friday undertakes.
This is an interesting exercise although Coetzee places them there during the Plague, which does clash with the Defoe book.With these short stories, Coetzee proves he is the master of powerful prose on thought-provoking topics. The stories are those of a great novelist at his peak, and this volume will be a must-have for Coetzee fans. Nice, brief read. I enjoyed the first story the most - which was probably four stars for me (only for the insight - they are such brief stories that they almost don't warrant that description. Maybe 'impressions', or 'scenes' might have been a better way of classifying them).
I found I skimmed through the second and third stories, which did not leave much of an impression on me.Spoiler - The first story, 'A House in Spain', follows a man's realisation of attachment to non living things, namely Nice, brief read. I enjoyed the first story the most - which was probably four stars for me (only for the insight - they are such brief stories that they almost don't warrant that description.
Maybe 'impressions', or 'scenes' might have been a better way of classifying them). I found I skimmed through the second and third stories, which did not leave much of an impression on me.Spoiler - The first story, 'A House in Spain', follows a man's realisation of attachment to non living things, namely a home. He realises that, contrary to his dismissive idea that 'one cannot fall in love with a home', when he buys his house in Spain, that is exactly what he does. He wants to know about the people who lived there previously - in much the same way a lover might want to know about former partners - he connects with the villagers - again, in much the same way as he might connect with friends and acquaintances of a partner, and he worries that, 'when his own time has passed, he does not want to be utterly forgotten.
He hopes (hoping against hope) that in some sense the house itself will bear the memory of him'.I'm not sure I am entirely in agreement with this conclusion, but I found it a really interesting description of the attachment someone can have to a home (and presumably, their surrounding environment) -'What it comes down to, astonishingly, is that he wants a relationship with this house in a foreign country, a human relationship, however absurd the idea of a human relationship with stone and mortar might be. For the sake of that relationship, with this house and its history and the village as a whole. in return for that relationship he is prepared to treat the house as one treats a woman, paying attention to her needs and even her quirks, spending money on her, soothing her through her bad times, treating her with kindness.' Not love, not yet, but something like it.
A form of marriage between a man growing old and a house no longer young'. J M Coetzee, One of the best literary writers, the way he creates his own world for his characters, is heart-catching.
His short stories as well as novels are thought-provoking. This book comprises of his three crisp short stories, simple still classic read.In his first story 'House in Spain' he draws attention of readers by writing such simple lines as “We fell in love with the house’, friends of his say. How can you fall in love with a house when the house cannot love you back, he wants to re J M Coetzee, One of the best literary writers, the way he creates his own world for his characters, is heart-catching. His short stories as well as novels are thought-provoking. This book comprises of his three crisp short stories, simple still classic read.In his first story 'House in Spain' he draws attention of readers by writing such simple lines as “We fell in love with the house’, friends of his say.
How can you fall in love with a house when the house cannot love you back, he wants to reply? Once you start falling in love with objects, what will be left of real love, love as itused to be?
But no one seems to care. People fall in love with tapestries, with old cars.”.And third story 'He and His Man' is somewhat beyond the words.set up during Plague era.Must enjoy.
'but, writes his man, we forget what kind of courage was called on to confront the (black) plague. It was not a mere soldier's courage, like gripping a weapon & charging the foe: it was like charging Death himself on his pale horse'this was both an author & collection I had never heard about before my class yesterday, wherein our teacher sat us down & placed out a group of books, and told us to reach for one.
Someone beat me to Franz Kafka's works and for that? I reached i 'but, writes his man, we forget what kind of courage was called on to confront the (black) plague. It was not a mere soldier's courage, like gripping a weapon & charging the foe: it was like charging Death himself on his pale horse'this was both an author & collection I had never heard about before my class yesterday, wherein our teacher sat us down & placed out a group of books, and told us to reach for one. Someone beat me to Franz Kafka's works and for that? I reached immediately next to the book that had caught my eye for the whole class, the thinnest book, the prettiest, covered in a light blue coat with gold titling, it was eye-catching at the very least.and the stories did not disappoint.this is a tiny book, filled with three stories, all about 20 pages long ( though more like 7 a4 pages ) the first story is a comparison to marriage and owning a house, it was intriguing and the writing beautiful. The second was a story I forgot almost immediately, unfortunately, however, the last story told the tale of comradeship through writing and reading something someone has written that you have never met, through some of the darkest times.I found while the stories weren't overly enticing plot and character-wise, they were written so beautifully that I had to keep reading.
As he gets older he finds himself growing more and more crabby about language, about slack usage, falling standards. Falling in love, for instance. 'We fell in love with the house', friends of his say.
How can you fall in love with a house when the house cannot love you back, he wants to reply? Once you start falling in love with objects, what will be left of real love, love as it used to be?
But no one seems to care. People fall in love with tapestries, with old cars.A man contemplates his deep connection to a house.The unfathomable idea of threshing wheat points to a life lost.
As he gets older he finds himself growing more and more crabby about language, about slack usage, falling standards. Falling in love, for instance.
'We fell in love with the house', friends of his say. How can you fall in love with a house when the house cannot love you back, he wants to reply? Once you start falling in love with objects, what will be left of real love, love as it used to be?
But no one seems to care. People fall in love with tapestries, with old cars.A man contemplates his deep connection to a house.The unfathomable idea of threshing wheat points to a life lost.And a writer ponders the creation of his narrator.Three Stories—'His Man and He', written as Coetzee's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, 'A House in Spain' and 'Nietverloren'—is the work of a master at his peak. These are stories that embody the essence of our existence. A must-have for Coetzee fans.Three Stories is a sleek little volume of three previously published short stories by award-winning South African-born writer, J M Coetzee, which showcase his literary talent.I. A House in Spain (2000) is a reflection on the parallels between marriage and owning a house.
The man who has bought for himself a house in Spain find his attitude altering from scorn for people who profess to falling in love with a house, to feeling something akin to just that for the old homestead on which he begins to lavish attention.II. Nietverloren (2002) is a lament on the loss of the traditional use of the South African farmland for a crop of a very different kind.III. He and His Man (2003) imagines the life of Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday on their return to England, as Robin lives vicariously on the travels Friday undertakes. This is an interesting exercise although Coetzee places them there during the Plague, which does clash with the Defoe book.With these short stories, Coetzee proves he is the master of powerful prose on thought-provoking topics. The stories are those of a great novelist at his peak, and this volume will be a must-have for Coetzee fans.Marianne.