Nobel laureate for literature JM Coteze delivers his book Diary of a bad year in 2007. A work that narrates the compilation work of an Australian writer known as Mr. C and his assistant typist Anya. Discover this wonderful book and its author through this article.
A prolific Australian writer fakes an eye disease to hire the services of a young assistant.
Diary of a Bad Year by JM Coetzee
This book is made up of a series of essays that have been written by Mr. C., a 72-year-old Australian writer, who pretends to be blind to hire the services of a young assistant. Anya will accompany Mr. C in the hard work of compiling, editing and writing the essays that will end up as part of the commissioned book, Strong opinions.
En Diary of a bad year, we will be traveling between the construction site, the opinions of Mr. C and his discussions with Anya and the fights between Alan and Anya for the development of the relationship with Mr. C. The essays that make up the body of the fictional book and the book physical, contain the visions and ramblings of Coetezee himself on various subjects art, philosophy, politics and science.
The complexity of the plot and the narrative support of this work allowed Coetezee to let Anya speak directly to her employer, Mr. C. In a section titled Second Diary, a letter from Anya to Mr. C, will become the epilogue of the book Strong Opinions.
This second book will contain the essays that did not make it to the Australian commission. A book with many nuances and transfers between fiction and the true opinion and crisis of the author himself.
For specialized critics, this literary foray by Coetezee does not demonstrate his abilities as a writer and essayist. It is among many of his essay works, we can see the lucidity of his arguments, however, for many this work does not represent his best work, nor does it reflect the greatness of his pen.
JM Coteze winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003
About the author of JM Coetezee
Jhon Maxwel Coetezee was born in South Africa in 1940. Between the passing of his childhood and his permanent movement between Australia, England and the USA, he had a moment of identity crisis for not identifying himself with a nationality.
This identity flexibility allowed him to see and analyze the political, social and artistic crisis of each country in which he lives. His narrative style ranges between the symbolic and the metaphorical that have identified him as one of the emerging voices against apartheid and the effect of this phase on society and culture.
Coetezee, appears among the lists of thes most famous writers, with his Nobel Prize in Literature, he has been recognized for his long and prolific career in the world of letters. He considers one of his biggest influences to be Samuel Beckett, on whom his Ph.D. at the University of Austin Texas was based.