The Pole
by J.M. Coetzee
New Books of the Week , January 8, 2024
New Books of the Week
The Young Man
by Annie Ernaux
The Pole
by J.M. Coetzee
Sometimes books you read make themselves into pairs, but rarely as neatly as these two did for me: two very slim books, the latest by Nobel laureates who each turned 83 last year, and each told by a woman in middle age about an affair with a man named in the title. From those similarities, though, they become almost opposites: Ernaux's memoir recalls her own affair, proudly hungry, with a man young enough to have been her son, while in Coetzee's novel, a married Spanish woman is pursued, against her bemused reluctance, by a Polish concert pianist old enough to be her father. Each book is spare and exact and insightful enough on its own to set up reverberations inside its tiny space; set next to each other, they echo back and forth almost infinitely.
The Young Man
by Annie Ernaux
The Pole
by J.M. Coetzee
Sometimes books you read make themselves into pairs, but rarely as neatly as these two did for me: two very slim books, the latest by Nobel laureates who each turned 83 last year, and each told by a woman in middle age about an affair with a man named in the title. From those similarities, though, they become almost opposites: Ernaux's memoir recalls her own affair, proudly hungry, with a man young enough to have been her son, while in Coetzee's novel, a married Spanish woman is pursued, against her bemused reluctance, by a Polish concert pianist old enough to be her father. Each book is spare and exact and insightful enough on its own to set up reverberations inside its tiny space; set next to each other, they echo back and forth almost infinitely.
— Tom
The Pole was reviewed in Newsletter #362 on January 8, 2024. For more like this, and other bookish news, sign up for the newsletter .
Swipe for Next
Press ← or → for next