I have been thinking how much a good book is like an organic thing. When the proper level of alchemical transformation is reached between a skilled author at the top of his game and a reader with the proper level of receptivity and empathy then something new and wonderful is birthed. You are no longer dealing with some pulped paper glued together with some artful(or not) cover protecting its frail glyphs but you are in the presence of something larger, vaster and infinitely more sacred than just a `good yarn’ designed to kill some time. You actually are allowed to see the world through another pair of eyes, observe, act, fail to act, feel, watch an entire life spool out with Technicolor vividness, rest firmly embedded in another for the length of the journey that is the book. That is something rare and wonderful that isn’t often to be found, but I think it is close to the root of why certain readers trumpet certain authors and books with the fervor of one who has found The Grail or some other talisman of sacred import.

The Life and Times of Michael K is my most recent experience where I closed a book at its end and felt I had been exposed completely to a real, living soul; where I felt the alchemy of a life lived thorough another take place. The book is the journey of one frail, physically malformed and mentally challenged man through the horrors of South African during the apartheid era. Michael K.’s journey is one that begins in poverty and oppression, travels outwards into greater malignancies and terrors, and ends in a cruel stasis that might be synonymous with death. And yet…this book never once struck me as being, depressed, morbid or overly sad. Through the strength of the writing I was so utterly with Michael most of the time, I could not stand outside dispassionately and think about what a terrible lot in life he had. And while the arc of Michael’s journey is pitiful, one of mere subsistence for the greater part, there are also scenes of corresponding beauty that make you realize that even though Michael is a simpleton his connection to the land, to the earth, is something much more subtle and deep. Michael is a planter and a gardener and he finds what redemption he can from his hands delving into the red clay that is the body of South Africa and though he wouldn’t know how to express it, there is sense of completeness and soul-solace he achieves there, that makes his life seem not wholly pitiful.

By letting this half-starved , hair-lipped, street urchin be the recipient of these small instances of grace, Coetzee is really delivering a quite passé and subversive message: the most sordid lives might still seem to the ones experiencing them eminently worth living. And by letting Michael K. remain his plodding, dim and unaware self throughout this book, after numerous exposures to the brutal injustices of apartheid, war and exile, Coetzee has also delivered a stirring paean to the capacity of the individual, no matter how slight and flawed, to stand and prevail against anything.

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همه چیز را پشت سر گذاشته بود. صبح که بیدار می شد تنها چیزی که پیش رو داشت یک پهنه بزرگ و مجزا از روز بود،هر بار یک پهنه. خود را موریانه ای می دید که از دلِ صخره راه باز می کند. به نظر می رسید کاری جز زیستن نیست. چنان بی حرکت می نشست که اگر پرنده ها پایین می آمدند و روی شانه اش جا خوش می کردند، به تعجب نمی افتاد.
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به خودت کمی اهمیت بده مرد وگرنه لا به لای زندگی از بین می روی و هیچ کس هم نمی فهمد .
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مایکل ک فرزند زنی فقیر است . او از بدو تولد با لبی ناجور و ذهنی کند و ابله وار به دنیا می آید . این پسر در عین سادگی و حماقت خود به زندگی ادامه می دهد . سعی می کند وظایف خود را انجام دهد ، انچه دیگران از او انتظار دارند . سعی می کند دور از آنها و به آرامی زندگی کند با گیاهان و حیوانات. در مجموع موضوع داستان همینه زندگی ساده یک ادم ابله بین مردم عاقل دنیا .
مایکل ادم ساده ای است با جهان بینی مخصوص و بکر خودش.انسان ساده ای که در نهایت سادگی هیچ نی خواهد جز عزت و احترام انسانی آزاد
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آنچه در این کتاب عجیب است زندگی کاراکتر اصلی داستان است که از فقیرترینهاست و بهمراه مادرش زندگی نکبتباری را می گذراند و به سفر عجییبی راهی می شود. این قدر فلاکت را شاید هرگز نتوان تصور کرد به حدی که نویسنده برای کاراکتر خود نامی نمی گزیند و او را ک خطاب می کند. او هیچ است و نامی هم ندارد. بلکه «یک دلقک، یک آدمک چوبی» است. من هنوز متحیرم که چگونه نویسنده توانسته چنین داستان فجیعی را بیافریند!

ضمن داستان ما به طور حاشیه ای با شرایط پلیسی آفریقای جنوبی در سالهای نژادپرستی آشنا می شویم به گونه ای که گویی تمام کشور از اردوگاههای محصور تشکیل شده. زندگی داخل اردوگاهها بخشی از حقایق داستان است که خواننده با آن آشنایی می یابد. زندگی با تمام ابعاد خود و خوبی ها و زشتی های آن. ولی این داستان سیاسی نیست. اگر محیط داستان پلیسی و سرکوبگرانه است به خاطر شرایط واقعی تاریخی است ولی تمرکز داستان روی زندگی فرد مفلوکی است با تمام آرزوها و احساسات و غرورهایش.

مایکل ک از شهر به روستا سفر می کند و تلاش او برای زندگی، رقت بار است، چه زمانی که مانند یک جانور در غاری می خزد و چه زمانی که گذارش به اردوگاهها می افتد. سرانجام نیز داستان ناتمام او در شهر خاتمه می یابد.

برجستگی این داستان در موشکافی فلاکت است. فلاکتی که برای هیچ خواننده ای قابل تصور و تخیل نیست. و در عین حال تلاشی برای یک زندگی رویایی در فجیع ترین شرایط!

مسلما خواندن این کتاب احساس و تجربه منحصر به فردی به شما خواهد داد و کتابی است که به دوباره خواندنش می ارزد.

منبع:اینترنت

Quinto livro de Coetzee e de novo sinto que vi o mundo por meio de um olhar muito particular, capaz de generalizar situações, torná-las universais, por meio de eventos concretos e imediatos que acontecem aos personagens que coloca em cena. Existe uma melancolia que tudo atravessa, existe um sentimento de desamparo, que encenado como realidade parece poder brotar do sentir interior de qualquer um de nós. Claro que sentimos a geografia de Coetzee por detrás do relato, inevitável, mas sentimos mais do que isso, isto não é apenas sobre o Apartheid, é muito mais do que isso.

O personagem não é dono de todas as suas faculdade cognitivas, mas quem o é? E no entanto consegue demonstrar em cada momento a sua vontade de prosseguir, de seguir o objetivo estabelecido, desligando-se, apartando-se da realidade que se lhe impõe continuamente. Os outros, todos os outros se impõem, porque parece existir uma ordem que regula tudo e todos, e todos devem obedecer-lhe em cada momento. A ordem que muda no tempo e segue quem a define, independentemente de sobre quem ordena, regulando as suas vidas.

"A Vida e o Tempo de Michael K" é uma parábola curta, mas incisiva e gratificante, permite-nos olhar o mundo e questioná-lo.

n  "War is the father of all and king of all. Some he shows as gods, others as men. Some he makes slaves and others, free."n

But how does one differentiate between The Slave and The Free? Is that Man a slave, whose captivity by the victor frees him of his worldly expectations? Or should we call that Man, free who has no kin to bother about since they have all been enslaved in the war fire? Is it possible to live a life without succumbing to either side? Or is it inevitable to be one without being the other?

Coetzee doesn’t answer these questions since it would be too insulting for a war survivor. But he lifts us up to a devastating height from where we can see the merciless resilience that survival demands from a Man under the darkest clouds of war and death, by focussing our attention to Michael K. Michael K is a humble gardener with the local authority and is staying with his aged mother in Cape Town. But in the aftermath of the Civil War, when his mother, through fits of falling health, expresses her desire to move back to her childhood place across the countryside, the filial Michael doesn’t refuse for long. Discouraged by a train reservation not before two months and non-issuance of travel permit from authorities, Michael decides to ferry his mother by road on a make-shift barrow that he makes indigenously.

But the journey soon turns out to be his most fatal curse, during which, he not only loses his mother but also loses his many virtues, passions, dreams and even, sensibilities. In the war torn land, he is left to fend for himself, getting driven from hospitals to rehabilitation camps. But Michael surprises himself when he snatches a brief period of independence from the clutch of his destiny in the form of an abandoned, yet fertile land which he comes to love as his own child and tends to it with renewed purpose. But when strangers infiltrate into his little utopia, he once again finds himself at the cusp of decision.

n  "… he watched the water wash slowly across the field, turning the earth dark. Now when I am most needed, he thought, I abandon my children."n

He finds drawing different versions of himself from his innards, much to his shock and occasional pride, to counter them. His decisions, no matter how inconsequential, stare at him, with a thousand questions in their eyes: that to eat, he can kill as well as produce; that to sleep, he can befriend day as well as night; that to comprehend, he can be mute as well as blind; that to survive, he can stuff as well as fast.

He gains new perspectives, hopes and emotions while the origin of these new possessions continue to elude him.

n  "He awoke and squinted into the sun. Striking all the colours of the rainbow from his eyelashes, it filled the sky. I am like an ant that does not know where its hole is, he thought."n

Wading through captors, dodging policemen, escaping camps, at last, he falls into the hands of a genial Medical Officer who offers him guidance to start all over again. This Officer, although bears the brunt of a silent illegal suspect on his infirmary walls every day, confers him the benefit of doubt that every human deserves at least once in his lifetime. But Michael, by now, has learnt one of the biggest truths of life: it is far more worthwhile to die with intensity than to live without it.

n  "Not being iron was his greatest virtue."n

And so, Coetzee brings us down to that one night into whose stillness Michael walks finally, leaving behind the Slave Michaels that were lost to War and taking along the Free Michaels who might help him weather another War.

The best Coetzee yet.

This is an oddly compelling book about Michael K's journey from Cape Town to the place of his mother's childhood. Interestingly, Coetzee doesn't label his characters Black or white or mention the word apartheid - yet Michael K encounters constant conflict with authorities as a war drones on. He is a passive, opaque man - sometimes more symbolic than flesh and blood.

Michael K has been overlooked his entire life and has spent it mostly in isolation. His simple-minded demeanor cloaks a fierce determination to survive on his terms. He moves randomly about, not sure what he wants, but seems to find contentment on the land, where he can grow pumpkins secretly. Along the way, he encounters strangers who treat him both cruelly and with kindness. This is a thought provoking novel and would be great to discuss as I'm sure there are layers of meaning here that I missed.

"Yo no estoy en guerra." Esta frase la dice K durante su duro recorrido. Sudáfrica sufre una guerra civil, está dividida, y el protagonista de la novela, Michael K, está preocupado, sobre todo por su madre, gravemente enferma. Aunque trabaja de jardinero en Ciudad del Cabo, decide que es hora de abandonar la ciudad y cumplir el deseo de su madre de regresar a la granja en la que se crió. Pero lo que a simple vista parece fácil, no lo es tanto en tiempo de guerra, con los toques de sirena y los controles y la necesidad de conseguir pases. A pesar de los obstáculos que encuentran en su camino, K y su madre no se rendirán. Pero este sólo será el principio de la difícil y terrible odisea de Michael K en su afán por encontrar la libertad y la paz.

Coetzee es capaz de hacernos empatizar con los personajes de su novela a través de sus penalidades y sentimientos, utilizando para ello una prosa objetiva, fría y árida, sin concesiones. El interés del libro radica en K, un personaje difícil de comprender, ya que algunas de sus actitudes son ciertamente desconcertantes, pero al que te ves abocado a seguir para saber cómo acabará su historia.

Može li kraj da opravda početak? To je nešto, u malko izmenjenoj formulaciji, što mi je glavni utisak ove knjige – pored manjka koncentracije tokom čitanja i epopejskog trajanja istog.

Podeljeno u tri dela, svaki veći od onog sledećeg, prvi deo Kucijevog Majkla K. je nešto sa čim sam se onako vraški mučio. Ne zato što je loše napisan – tu je taj Kucijev suv realizam dodirnut magijskim tek sa nekim dvometarskim štapom (i to tek utoliko da je magija=neobičnost planete na kojoj živimo, a često uzimamo zdravo za gotovo; kao i u neka onostrana simbolika) – već zato što je prosto nezanimljivo. Prateći naslovnog Majkla K. u njegovom praktično slučajnom dostizanju nirvane u ambivalentno opisano ratno doba, stodeset stranica stoosamdeset-strana-dugog romana čini se previše. Besomučna repeticija, ne toliko kompleksna karakterizacija... A onda dodje drugi deo, iz druge perspektive, koji u mnogome promeni situaciju. Jer, ispostavlja se, bilo je važno posmatrati Majkla K. kako bismo ga mogli zaista upoznati. (Treći deo, svega par strana dug, nije toliko uticajan na narativu romana, već više igra neku ulogu epiloga).
E sad, ono što je meni i dalje u glavi jeste da li je ta oporost prvog dela opravdana drugim? Jer ja umalo da ne završim knjigu; zamalo da odustanem i „sačekam neko bolje doba“. U skladu s tim, ovo jeste sjajan roman – ali posmatran u globalu. Ako malo zumiramo na pojedine delove, mogu se videti rupe u inače dosta ukusnom siru; ako slučajno progutamo samo te rupe, jedemo prazan, topao vazduh. Čekajući Varvare je njegov raniji, a dosta bolji roman – šta tek onda reći o Sramoti.

4-

ომზე ბევრი წიგნი დაწერილა და ბევრიც წაგვიკითხავს გაუპატიურებულ ქალებზე, მშიერ ბავშვებზე, დახოცილ მოხუცებსა თუ უდანაშაულო ჯარისკაცებეზე, მაგრამ "მაიკლ კეის ცხოვრება და დროება" ამ ომების სხვა მსხვერპლზე მოგვითხრობს.
მაიკლ კეი კურდღლის ტუჩით დაიბადა, მაგრამ 31 წლის ასაკში მისი შეცვლა არ სურს, რადგან უნდა ისეთივე დარჩეს, როგორიც არის.
მაიკლ კეის სჯერა, რომ მის მიერ შეკეთებულ ურიკაში დედას ჩასვამს, ასობით მილს გაივლის და მოხუც დედას სიკვდილის წინა ოცნებას აუსრულებს.
მაიკლ კეის სწამს, რომ მიუხედავად ომისა, ხილი და ბოსტნეული ისევ ხარობს და მათ მოვლა სჭირდებათ.
მაიკლ კეის არ სჭირდება ომის სახელით შეთავაზებული თავშესაფარი, სამუშაო და საკვები, რად��ან მას შეუძლია იცხოვროს მთაში, საკუთარი ხელებით მოიყვანოს გოგრა და ნესვი და დედამიწის ამ უსისხლო სარჩოთი გაიტანოს თავი.
თუმცა, ომში ასე მარტივად ოცნებები და სურვილები არ სრულდება, მით უფრო მაიკლ კეისთვის, რომელსაც ადამიანების ვერაფერი გაუგია.

Este debe ser uno de los libros más hermosos, profundos y rebosantes de tesoros de toda la literatura. Es, sin duda, uno de los más entrañables. Tu cucharilla, Michael, la llevo desde hace años echando raíces en el corazón.

Normally when I write a review I like to be a bit sarcastic, or sometimes poke fun at the subject matter. This is not a book for sarcasm and I've had to set down my pointy mirth stick (the one I normally use for the poking of the fun).

Life and Times of Michael K is many thing
Poignant
Brief
Tragic

The writing has a sort of cold clarity, like a first breath of icy cold air on a winters morning which makes your lungs ache. Michael K is living in a war zone. He is an intelligent man who appreciates the gravity of his situation but his world view is also simplistic. He knows only that the blighted riot strewn streets of his former home are not where he needs to be and that he has to get his mother out of the city. Bureaucracy prevents flight from the violence by conventional means so he constructs a hand cart and proceeds to wheel his ailing mother towards her home town of Prince Albert.

Events take an predictably unhappy turn and Michael K, or K as he becomes known is stripped of his identity through loss of his ID cards but also through the loss of his family and possessions. He is a man with no past. Can a man with no past really go on and create a future for himself? K continues his quest to reach Prince Albert and when he finds it deserted he sets about trying to establish his own acre, an oasis of peace, life and sustenance in the empty Karoo. K's survival does not conform the the westernised ideal of survival and so eventually, he is picked up by the army and forced into a work camp where he will be cared for in return for providing physical labour. This side of the book is not seen for K's perspective but from the perspective of a doctor (who at first I assumed was female but actually turns out to be male) who cannot understand why Michaels (as he has now been named, thus further muddying the waters of his true identity) is the way he is. Michaels becomes a wraith, slipping between two worlds, fuelled only by the desire to be alone and self sufficient he is passively intent on not being absorbed into the world which a civil war is forcing him to confront.

My country has no civil war. I have only moved through what might be described as war zones. This book may be as close as I will ever get to sensing the powerlessness of the dispossessed. This book is enough.

Like Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians, Life and Times of Michael K certainly left it's mark on me, and of the three, I'd say it was the most intriguing. However, overall, I still think the other two were the better novels, as its simple minded protagonist here felt more like a cloddish plot device than a real man. I really couldn't work him out. Just how much of a dullard was he?
Coetzee is persistently reminding the reader just how much of a borderline simpleton Michael K actually is, and how little he can make sense of the world, and yet, he seems able to easily outwit those who want to capture him, knows irrigation systems, growing crops and building shelters like the back of his hand, talks forcefully, and asks many searching questions.

We first meet him when things appear relatively normal, until in a discomfiting way, Coetzee describes a jeep knocking a youth off a road, a crowd gathering, curfew sirens ignored, a man firing a revolver from a nearby building and the arrival of the military. Things are getting very dangerous in this alternate South Africa. Michael K decides he and his mother simply cannot stay where they are, especially as she is sick and pining for her rural birthplace, so using a trolley he wheels her away and they heads for the hills. But out on the road things aren't any better, to Michael K at the start of this journey, brutality and danger and stiffness of limb and rain seem all the same; tyranny feels as natural an ordeal as the bleak harshness of the road. His mother deteriorates so piteously that Michael must surrender her to a hospital, were he is shunted aside, until he receives the worst possible news. And here begins the parable of Michael K's freedom and resourcefulness; here begins Michael K's brief life of bliss. He is a sort of Robinson Crusoe meets Huckleberry Finn - he is the lord of his own life.

Continuing to an abandoned farm where he begins to cut his remaining ties with the world, he hides away in a self-made dugout, living off little more than water, warm daylight, a few gathered bugs, and some crops. Every so often Michael's quiet existence is disrupted by the war he feels he has no part in, but is constantly told he is part of it whether he likes it or not. He finds himself in and out of prison camps, forced to work, and to answer questions he fails to understand, or simply chooses not to. He defies his captors by rejecting the food they give him, he starts to waste away.
By switching voice later on, the text cleverly evades authority, as we get the first-person notes of the prison-camp doctor who ministers to the starving prisoner. This I thought was a smart move, seeing through the eyes of someone else, and what they make of this oddity of man.

I found some of the scenes throughout deeply moving, and also the ending to be one of those that lingers around in your head for a good while, and despite the book being under 200 pages it felt longer to me. Coetzee is a writer of clarifying inventiveness and translucent conviction, and here get we get a vivid and eloquent tale. His subdued yet urgent lament is for the sadness of a South Africa that has made dependents, parasites, and prisoners of its own children, black or white. Having read three of his novels now, it becomes more clear to me why he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.