marți, 11 mai 2010

"Diary of a Bad Year" by J.M. Coetzee

Sometimes books speak to you in a way that permeates matter.
I mean, I thought I would like this book since I saw it on the shelf and my expectations were accomplished.

The book present opinions, essays of an author who is aging and approaching death, and the story of his "typist"(a neighbor who is helping him to write the book).The main character, is Senior C and his help is a beautiful young lady Anya, who lives in the same building, but at the penthouse with her boyfriend Alan.

What is so new about this book is that it separates the stories in 2. First you have the essays, opinions wrote by Senior C, and then you have the story between Senior C and Anya, and in the last section the story between Anya and Alan. It is so well intertwined that you feel that the whole book has a consistency which can be felt through all 3 sections of the novel.

It is interesting to find opinions and reaction on the same novel, but with an air or different characters, although for me, Senior C and Alan kind of resemble, in a way which two point on a continuum could. I liked the vivid description of rivalry between these two characters for Anya's attention, but in the end,Senior C, with his wide life experience, and more clearly define opinions grabs more attention from Anya, and as a result Alan, in a desperate way, tries to make them feel awkward at the celebration of the book's publishing.

The publishing of the books signifies a moment of endings. The author(Senior C) realizes his life is getting closer to its final end, and Anya decides to leave Alan and start a new life.

I enjoyed the book and thought a bit about my own ending, it's hard not to think of when you're reading about someone's else. I guess in the end we all go alone in death but we can have a companion on the last minutes of life if we know how to appreciate and maintain relationships.

I just hope I'll not end up alone watching the birds in a park.