The Late Essays of J. M. Coetzee

 

I'm always on the lookout for something readable. I don't read that much fiction, probably because I always question why a writer wrote a passage or a sentence this or that way or question the plot. So I read more nonfiction, mostly from magazines such as The Atlantic and The New Yorker. I always enjoy the true crime pieces, and often the personal history pieces as well in The New Yorker. The Atlantic also has personal history pieces that are very good, but it tends to be more political. One recent personal history piece from the ghostwriter who wrote Price Harry's memoir, Spare, was exceptionally good.

I came across the essays of J.M. Coetzee, a Nobel laureate, and after reading a sample on my Kindle decided to buy the book. It didn't disappoint. The essays, analyses of various writers, their lives, how their lives affected their work, the analyses of their work, are informative, entertaining, and might be helpful to anyone who writes fiction. The essays start off with one about Defoe, then one about Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. There's also one about Philip Roth's work. There are several essays on Samuel Beckett, and I could have done with one. But what I learned from this essay is that the “no word” can be as powerful as “the word.” Silence is powerful, but how does a fiction writer achieve this: putting few words on the page? I don't know. But it's something to consider.

The only other essayist I can think of whose writing is so approachable and entertaining, while at the same time instructing, is George Orwell, who wrote many book reviews and reviews of writers. His essay on Charles Dickens is masterful.

But if anyone is looking for some essays that are enjoyable to read and instructive, they might consider J. M. Coetzee's Late Essays. It would've been nice if he had included more women writers, but, well, he didn't. Nor did he include William Faulkner, though he alludes to him in other essays. But so what? A good read.