Coetzee, for me is really an angel. He knows how to touch the heart. Most of the sections of the book were so absorbing that I felt the need to pause for a moment to breath.

His tender heart, Summer Vacations on farms, money crisis of childhood, love for books, sport fanaticism, bully kids in school, attention on wealthy kids in school, scout guiding, differences between Catholics and Jews, mother's love and her sacrifices for him, fantasies during school days for sex and how babies come, the blood of white and black people, Afrikaans and Coetzee's unwillingness to acceptance or denial of their culture, English culture and urge to into sophisticated meshes of it, burning of heart by seeing poor people, animal killing, death of an Aunt abandoned in obscurity of illness and funeral and later dead display of emotions, thirst for ambition, ineptitude of playing outdoor games, mediocrity in school...

It was exactly my story, at most of the places.... Except the place, time, people but same idiosyncrasy, interest... I really wish I could meet Coetzee one day and tell him how I felt the resemblance of my childhood in this book.

Coetzee, for me, is JESUS.

There was no story but profoundly strewn descriptions...

Uniquely written fictional autobiography of Coetzee in Primary School. He uses third person, present tense and ,as he does in Youth, an unnamed narrator. At times each paragraph seemed to be another memory loosely bound within the Chapter's purpose.
This is a boy of softness, aware of his weaknesses and failures, who seethes against a failed father and adores his mother who keeps the family going. He sees himself as an outsider, confused with the actions of adults, fearful of having his own actions noticed and terrified of being punished. But people notice his difference and recognise he will be seen.

One begins to understand why there is darkness in much of Coetzee’s fiction by reading this autobiographical account of his childhood. Family life was, at best, difficult and school life held many traumas. To protect himself from the many fearful challenges, the protagonist lives in a very personal parallel world, with some sentiments which he hates in himself. It is a very compelling read and the description of 1950s culture in the white and colored communities in
South Africa, is fascinating.