Another great masterpiece written by J.M. Coetzee.

4* Disgrace
4* Waiting for the Barbarians
3* A Ilha
4* The Master of Petersburg
3* Slow Man
3* Elizabeth Costello
3* Foe
4* Age of Iron
TR Dusklands
TR Youth
TR Boyhood
TR Life and Times of Michael K
TR Summertime
TR Siete cuentos morales
TR The Schooldays of Jesus

Me encanta como escribe Coetzee!
En este caso usa un recurso especial e íntimo y es el de una carta de una madre a su hija que en sí es toda la novela. O sea, la carta es la novela y en ella va relatando algunas "anécdotas" de su vida diaria (que del sentido tradicional tienen poco de anécdotas pues son circunstancias trascendentales y difícilmente repetibles) que dan cuenta de su historia y de cómo se vive el apartheid en Ciudad del Cabo por parte de una persona (blanca, ella) con la sensibilidad suficiente como para sufrir por lo que sucede a sus semejantes aunque (o porque) ella vive una realidad completamente diferente. Simultáneamente tiene una relación de convivencia con otro marginado como ella (aunque distinto tipo de marginalidad) y solitario como ella (aunque distinto tipo de soledad)...

Casi me dan ganas de leerlo de nuevo inmediatamente!

Desgarrador relato de una mujer africana en los tiempos de la dictadura en Sudáfrica (apartheid). Narrado de manera magistral por el señor Coetzee, no pudo ser mejor retratada la sociedad en tiempos difíciles, que hace pocos años dio fin a este periodo trágico en la historia de África.

I read this book the first time back in 1992 or so, and I must admit I can't remember a thing about it. I just finished rereading it and was struck by the tenderness and the anger within the tone of voice of the narrator. The context of apartheid South Africa is of course central to the book, and certainly worth reading now, in the years since that Heinous system has come to an end. I am also really fascinated by the theme of mother-daughter relationships as this one is certainly very fraught! Just as the narrator-mother is expressing happiness that her daughter has escaped South Africa, there is A strong current of anger and frustration that she is dying without her daughter present; instead Mr. V is the caretaker and witness of her demise. Although the narrator explicitly asks if he is an angel, I also see him as a strong Christlike figure. Enigmatic, tender, fierce.... Many seemingly contradictory characteristics.

A book full of unanswered questions, both sad and lovely to contemplate.

This has been described as a novel about love that exceeds boundaries. It is also a lament on death and dying and the grief a mother feels at her daughter’s decision to leave South Africa until ‘the rulers of the apartheid state are swinging by their necks from the lamp posts.’

The novel starts on the day Mrs Curren is told that she has terminal cancer. The cancer becomes a metaphor for a country that has lost it humanity.

At the outset Mrs Curren is oblivious to the extent of the cancer. When she does venture into the underworld, it is analogous to Virgil’s Aeneid and she sees a Dantesque vision of hell.

Le storie di Coetzee espresse in sintesi avrebbero l'interesse di una fila di martedì mattina all'ufficio del catasto, se non ci fosse Coetzee. Per esempio Età di ferro: storia di una donna sessantenne che vive sola in una cittadina del Sudafrica, siamo negli anni '80 e c'è rappresaglia ovunque. Lei è malata e si imbatte in un tale che sta peggio di lei, un taciturno con un cane, senza arte, né parte. Decide di ospitarlo a casa per il semplice fatto che non ha neppure la forza di cacciarlo. Una lettrice scrive, infastidita, ma come è possibile che Coetzee si appassioni sempre a raccontare vite di uomini così amorfi, così inutili?
Secondo me Coetzee è uno dei pochissimi che se ne frega di apparire vulnerabile o anti vulnerabile o glamour o trasgressivo o contestatore o attivista, ma badate bene, lui non gioca a mettere a nudo le cose come fa tanta narrativa odierna (fra l'altro il modo di dire 'mettersi a nudo' non significa un bel niente). Coetzee potrebbe essere benissimo uno dei suoi personaggi, il lettore lo sente, questo è ciò che conta in Coetzee.

La protagonista è un'insegnante di latino in pensione che afferma:: "Può sembrare che io comprenda ciò che dico, ma, credimi, non è così". Può essere Coetzee, a dirlo.
Il reietto col cane, un uomo rudimentale, che viene rimproverato da lei, può essere benissimo Coetzee. Questo passaggio è molto bello.
- Che ne sarà di lei quando non ci sarò più?
- Andrò avanti.
- Ne sono certa; ma chi ci sarà a farle compagnia?
Ha sorriso esitante. - Ho bisogno di compagnia nella mia vita?
Non una replica. Una domanda vera e propria. Non lo sa. Lo sta chiedendo a me, quest'uomo così rudimentale.
Non sa come si ama. Come non lo sa un bambino. Non sa quali chiusure lampo e bottoni e ganci aspettarsi. Non sa cosa va dove. Non sa come fare ciò che deve fare.

An early novel in Coetzee’s list of achievements, Age of Iron, depicts the author’s distaste for apartheid, the revolution against it, and gives prescient hints of what was to come of South Africa after Mandela. Coetzee has always seemed to this reader an idealist, harping eloquently against human imperfections and the flawed institutions created by such faulty people. But he’s always seemed to know this about himself, and he’s made obvious attempts in his fiction to resolve this inner conflict. In Age of Iron, such contradictions couldn’t be more apparent.

His protagonist here is a Mrs. Curren, a former classics professor suffering a terminal case of cancer, who has always looked down on both apartheid and the struggle against it from her academic ivory tower. Now, however, the mud and blood of the struggle grasp her personally, and they won’t let go. Her housekeeper, Florence, has a young son, Bheki, who has involved himself in the revolution’s rising violence. He disappears and Mrs. Curren offers to help Florence find him. This takes them into a poor black community that is being burned out by the police, as if to exterminate rats.
Bheki has been shot dead, they quickly discover, and Mrs. Curren now faces the life and death reality of the struggle. Too, she’s seen as unwelcome in that place, both by the white policemen and the poor black residents. She begins to realize a suppressed alienation rising to her surface, an alienation that allows her no emotional refuge from either the social conflict or her disease.
Then there’s Vercueil – an alcoholic hobo and, if he can be believed, an ex-trawler sailor who was hurt in a shipboard accident, rendering him unable to work. He becomes Mrs. Curren’s alter ego, a sometimes-mute sounding board, who is willing to help her end her life – more willing that she is, however.

To Mrs. Curren, she and the likes of other whites in South Africa are floss, mere visitors hovering over the African soil. Florence, Bheki, and their kind are a kinf of iron – fragile of body, but of more durable stuff soul-wise. This then is Coetzee’s metaphor – that the most durable souls seem to be the most set upon in the flesh.

This book doesn’t take sides in the struggle to throw off apartheid; instead it summons us to the view that South Africa could have been saved at one time, but now, with the first shots having been fired, it’s too late for all that.

If there’s one flaw to the book it’s the diminished role of Vercueil. He could have played the truth-dealing drunkard to Mrs. Curren’s indignation, her ivory towered view of life in that torn country. He has moments of this, to be sure, but he could have been much more.

La señora Curren debe lidiar con un cáncer a los huesos a sus 70 años. Vive sola en Ciudad del Cabo, pero un hombre negro entra a vivir en su casa. Ella decide no echarlo. Corre el año 1986. Los confictos internos de la Sudáfrica del apartheid se recrudecen. El país vive en una escalada cruenta de violencia y de muerte. La señora Curren le escribe a su hija que vive en Estados Unidos para contarle todo lo que va procesando en esos días tan complejos para ella y para el país que habita. La problemática subjetiva y existencial de la narradora protagonista se funde con la crisis social y política. Los gestos y pensamientos más íntimos y personales de la voz narrativa trascienden a la esfera colectiva. La condición humana, la esfera ética y el valor de la palabra permiten buscar un sentido en medio del sin sentido. Una novela bella, intensa y tremendamente humana.

Coetzee puts the reader not only inside the head of the main character, but in her heart and soul too and does it in poetic prose that thrills the reader. He is unique in his style with a refreshing approach to storytelling. Here is story that follows the mentally unbalanced deterioration of a dying woman as she tries to deal with feelings of abandonment and the approach of death while enduring physical pain. As a parallel Coetzee subtly lays before the reader, as a background to the woman's suffering, the tortured death throes of the collapsing society of the apartheid era. Death looms its head throughout the book: the woman's approaching death from cancer, the death of young black South Africans in their struggle for freedom, and the death throes of a highly organized society gone awry in its civil structure, the tragic unravelling of civilization into what seems inevitable chaos. It is a miracle of history and a tribute to black, brown and white South Africans that it did not end in a suicidal bloodbath, but instead in an uneasy compromise. The greatest tragedy of all is that the world came down heavily on South Africa in an attempt to disband apartheid, then promptly forgot and ignored them when they accomplished this goal.

The book, Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee is a strong and powerful novel and is about apartheid in South Africa. Coetzee states, “How easy it is to love a child, how hard to love what a child turns into” (J.M. Coetzee, 56). This quote explains how a little baby is much more innocent opposed to a child with more exposure to the real world. The story follows the journey of Mrs. Curren, an elderly white woman with cancer in a place called Cape Town. Mrs. Curren is a classics professor that has been struggling with the lies and brutality of apartheid for her whole life. Mrs. Curren is a smart, educated, and well-read person. In spite of her privileged background, she is knocked down due to the guilt in the injustices of apartheid. However this guilt ends up driving her desire to confront the truth. This book gives us a number of series of letters and diaries written by Mrs. Curren to her estranged daughter. Mrs. Curren sent a letter to her daughter, who left to go live in America, and recounts the strange events of her painful dying days. As she looks back on her life, Mrs. Curren realizes how privileged she is and the guilt she feels for her injustices of apartheid. Mrs. Curren had witnessed a burning of a black township nearby and later finds a bullet-riddled body that belongs to her servant's child. Security forces find a teenage black activist hiding and they kill her in her own home. The teenage girl black activist has one compassion, one person that she tells her feelings about, and this person is a homeless alcoholic man that appears on her doorstep one day. This homeless man's name is Vercueil. Vercueil is a homeless man who creates a bond with the protagonist, Mrs. Curren. His character represents the oppressed population of black South Africans during the apartheid era. Vercueil is an alcoholic, and is often seen wandering the streets. His appearance and behavior reflects back to the hardships and struggles faced by many black South Africans living in poverty and awful conditions. Despite his rough life, Vercueil continues to have a great humanity that slowly starts to become more obvious as the story unfolds. Mrs. Curren initially views him with unknown and fear, but as they spend more time together, she begins to see his kindness and compassion. Vercueil becomes a main figure in the book. Through Mrs. Curren interactions with Vercueil and other characters, she starts to question her own identity and the nature of her society. J.M. Coetzee puts together the personal and political, as Mrs. Curren confronts the violence and injustice of her own surroundings. She starts to become an observer and takes part in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality. As the book goes on, Mrs. Curren's health goes downhill due to the deteriorating state of South Africa. J.M. Coetzee creates a painted picture of the country on the edge of collapse. The painting is filled with unrest, fear, and uncertainty. The book includes a sense of doom, as the characters struggle with their own mortality and the constant violence that threatens to take them all.
tIn the book Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee, a significant event is when Mrs. Curren and Vercueil see a violent conflict between a group of black protesters and the police. Mrs. Curren and Vercueil witnessed this when they were walking through the streets of Cape Town, and they came across a powerful gathering of protesters who were protesting for justice and equality among all. The situation quickly escalated and the police arrived and attempted to put out the protesters by using physical force. As Mrs. Curren and Vercueil watch the mess, they both become terrified and scared by the brutality of the police against the protesters. J.M. Coetzee would tend to emphasize the sounds of gunshots, tear gas, and the cries of the protesters. This significant event plays a key role in the book. J.M. Coetzee states, “I turned to Vercueil. Shall we go? I said.” (J.M. Coetzee, 133). This quote shows how Mrs. Curren felt uneasy and even uncomfortable about the whole situation happening right in front of her. She may have felt hopeless to see all those struggling people knowing there's nothing she could do about it.
In the book, Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee, a person of influence is Mrs. Curren herself. As she is the protagonist and narrator of the story, her thoughts, her actions, and even her personal journey has a main role in creating these events and themes of this book. Mrs. Curren is an older retired professor that is struggling and trying to fight cancer. Although her meeting with Vercueil and the awful realities of apartheid make her challenge the worldview and make her question her own system of inequality. Throughout the book, Mrs. Curren starts to become a symbol of empathy. She is a symbol of empathy due to her journey and her ability to understand as well as connect with the suffering of others. Her influence is mainly seen through her awareness of the social and political issues of South Africa. Mrs. Curren observes and reflects everything she sees and hears. J.M. Coetzee states, “No mercy, I thought: a war without mercy, without limits. A good war to miss” (J.M. Coetzee, 49)t. This quote shows Mrs. Currens competitive side. She is not in this book to just be there. She is there to live and take risks and even teach us lessons.
The main theme in J.M. Coetzee's book, Age of Iron, is the search of the social and political injustices, especially apartheid in South Africa. Coetzee dives into the human condition and the consequences of systemic, while also addressing themes of empathy, redemption, and mortality. Through the experiences are from the protagonist, Mrs. Curren, and her relation with various characters, the author makes sure the theme stays under apartheid. J.M. Coetzee states, “There is an alley down the side of the garage, you may remember it, you and your friends would sometimes play there. Now it is a dead place, waste, without use, where windblown leaves pile up and rot” (J.M. Coetzee, 1). This quote shows how fast the change of uniqueness happened. As Well as showing the readers what type of areas/places these people lived and belonged in.
Personally I would recommend the book, Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee, to others. Coetzee has an inspiring and smart way of explaining his thoughts into words. In my opinion, Age of Iron shows/tells the basic problems of our society in a real, non-sugarcodded way. Reading this book helps the reader understand the mentality behind the brutality and injustice times. J.M. Coetzee is one of South Africa's most distinguished novelists, and it definitely shows in his book. J.M. Coetzee states, “The dog complained softly. Vercueuil reached out a languid hand; it licked his fingers” ( J.M. Coetzee, 123). This quote shows Coetzee's way of wording things. He did not say relaxed hand and instead said languid hand. This just shows how much effort and thought was put into every word and every page he made. Overall I loved the book, Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee, and would definitely recommend it to others interested or not.

-Alina Watt

well written, but undeserving of being studied as an A level literature text

اگر بخوام مقايسه كنم راستش
Disgrace
رو به مراتب بيشتر دوست داشتم.
چرا كه معتقدم تا حد بسيار زيادي جذابيتش رو مديون و مدهون شخصيت ها و شخصيت پردازيشه، در حالي كه تو اين اثر چيز زيادي از شخصيت ها
حتي تا پايان داستان هم نميفهميم، اصلا بفهميم هم از اين همه روابط عجيب غريب سر در نمياريم. اين داستان بيشتر آفريقاي جنوبي دوران آپارتايد رو به تصوير ميكشه. و خوب اينكه
Disgrace
بعد از آپارتايد نوشته شده هم تو اين تفاوت بي تاثير نيست. كوتسي بعد از نوشتن اين كتاب در آفريقا جنوبي به شدت محكوم شده انقدر كه آفريقا جنوبي رو ترك كرده و تابعيت استراليارو گرفته. و چه تصويري هم از آپارتايد ترسيم ميكنه...
و تا جايي كه ميشد خوندن اين كتابو طول دادم تا آخرش مثل ديسگريس غصه نخورم.


“Though it came unbidden, though it filled me with distaste, I considered the thought without flinching. He and I pressed breast to breast, eyes closed, going down the old road together. Unlikely companions! Like travelling in a bus in Sicily, pressed face to face, body to body against a strange man. Perhaps that is what the afterlife will be like: not a lobby with armchairs and music but a great crowded bus on its way from nowhere to nowhere. Standing room only: on one's feet forever, crushed against strangers. The air thick, stale, full of sighs and murmurs: Sorry, sorry.  Promiscuous contact. Forever under the gaze of others. An end to private life.”

و كل داستان همين
Promiscuous contact
بود....