Youth is a story about a young man from South Africa, who tries to become a poet while living in London.
While he tries to be true to his dreams, daily life forces him to make choices which lead him to be less than the man he wants to be.
While he struggles with trying to find a balance between what he needs to do and what he wants to do, he suffers from a low self-esteem which makes it hard for him to feel adequate, both in his goal of becoming a poet and of trying to find love.

He is constantly comparing himself to others, be it his contemporaries or writers from a age long past, he never seems content with how he himself is coping with life.
His desperation and agitation make it difficult to succeed in anything, because he seems to believe that he doesn't need to make an effort himself.
He's merely waiting for inspiration to hit him, in the same way he is waiting for a girl to fall in love with him.

A very insecure and irresponsible boy caught in the body of an 25y old man, as so many walk the streets nowadays.
It seems that without anything pointing the way, most of them seem to drift aimlessly.

The story doesn't give a satisfactory ending. You don't get the feeling that he will turn out well in the end. It's just a foreboding that he will continue to doubt himself effortlessly until life decides for him due to his poor judgment.

What makes it a good story is that it is to the point and quite comparable to issues I've dealt with. Sometimes it does seem that life continues to go on and I lack any control over it. No choice, no inspiration.
Still, the gain the upper hand in these situations is what counts as experience and what makes you who you are.
I wouldn't have much patience with this bloke in real life. What kind of issues is he complaining of, anyway? No muze, no love, no talent.
All those things need work and dedication.

But maybe that's why this novel is called Youth.
The second you realize you need to work at it, you're grown up.

«Voor het station van de ondergrondse botst hij per ongeluk tegen een oud mannetje op dat kranten staat te verkopen. ‘Sorry!’ zegt hij. ‘Kijk uit waar je loopt,’ grauwt de man. ‘Sorry!’ zegt hij nogmaals.
Sorry. Het woord komt moeizaam over zijn lippen, als een steen. Telt één enkel woord van een onbepaalde categorie als spreken? Is wat er zich tussen hem en de oude man heeft afgespeeld een geval van intermenselijk contact, of laat het zich beter omschrijven als eenvoudige sociale interactie, zoals mieren die elkaars antennes aanraken? […] Tegen mensen opbotsen, ‘Sorry!’ zeggen, uitgescholden worden: een truc, een goedkope manier om een gesprek af te dwingen. Hoe leid je de eenzaamheid om de tuin.»

A profound fictionalized memoir presenting the story of J.M. Coetzee's time spent in London as a young immigrant. Coetzee, one of the finest writers writing today in any language, craved to move to London at a time when his native country South Africa was going through the peak years of turmoil caused by Apartheid. As an aspiring poet and writer he thought London would inspire him to mature and evolve as an artist and produce his best. His hopes dashed when, upon his arrival in England of early 1960s, he encountered gnawing loneliness and a terrible sense of emptiness in a society which did not offer an enabling intellectual climate to a young poet from one of its former colonies. Having to face his misplaced optimism and a soulless job that provided him sustenance, he turned to long periods of reflection and exploring the works of masters like Ford Madox Ford as well as flings with women that later on tormented him. Youth, ultimately, is a rich meditation on life, love, exuberance of youth and life-affirming power of art.