I liked the essays on Breyten Breytenbach, Daniel Defoe, Gordimer/Turgenev, and Doris Lessing

Apart from the first essay, `What is a Classic`(which is also the best piece imo), these essays are really more highly specific book reviews than anything else. Still, came across some writers I would like to read from Coetzee`s reviews, and a few interesting points on some familiar writers.

Essays over de romankunst aan de hand van "klassieke" romans.

The title: I liked that. But it turns out it's not my kind of lit crit. I remember preferring Calvino, Gracq & Kundera: they write about what they love. Didn't feel that with Coetzee.
I had read and studied only 2 of the authors he wrote about (Kafka & Musil), vaguely come across a few more during my studies (Richardson, Defoe, Borges), read Lessing & Rushdie by myself, had heard of another handful (Dostoevsky, Gordimer, Amos Oz, Mahfouz)... and became aware of the existence of a few more (the Dutch & lesser known South African writers) through reading the book.
He's a harsh critic and seldom made me want to read what he was writing about.

Fare la recensione a un libro che raccoglie le recensioni di Coetzee, premio Nobel della letteratura, bhé mi sembra un tantino presuntuoso.
Non posso fare altro che consigliare di leggerlo.
Si impara tantissimo.