About this title: In a South Africa torn by civil war, Michael K sets out to take his ailing mother back to her rural home. On the way there she dies, leaving him alone in an anarchic world of brutal roving armies. Imprisoned, Michael is unable to bear confinement and escapes, determined to live with dignity. This life-affirming novel illuminates the human experience: the need for an interior, spiritual life; for meaningful connections to the world in which we live; and for purity of vision.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780099268345ISBN:0099268345
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, London
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780099479154ISBN:009947915X
Description: As New. No Jacket. In a South Africa torn by civil war. Michael K sets out to take his mother back to her rural home....184 pages text. As New. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Secker & Warburg, London
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780436102974ISBN:0436102978
Description: Very Good + in Very Good jacket. 8vo-over 73/4"-93/4" tall. 250pp. HARDCOVER Dustwrapper will be supplied in protective sleeve or lyfjacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: SECKER & WARBURG
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780436102974ISBN:0436102978
Description: Published by Secker & Warburg in 1983. Hardback. Number of pages: 249. Condition: Very Good. May show some slight signs of wear. Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: SECKER & WARBURG
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780436102974ISBN:0436102978
Description: Published by Secker & Warburg in 1983. Hardcover. Number of pages: 249. Condition: Good. Used book but in Good Condition for sensible price. #8332975 Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Book Club Associates, London
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780436102974ISBN:0436102978
Description: Very Good in Good dust jacket. 0436102978. A very good copy. Binding sturdy. Exterior reflects very light wear (possible traces at spine, edges, or corners); cover minimally faded/worn. Interior pages free of notes or underlining, minimally faded and in very good overall shape. Dustjacket present, unclipped, and in good overall shape; very light fading/wear. Available for prompt dispatch from York, U. K.; Book. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Secker & Warburg, London 4th imp. (1st-1983, reprinted x 3 1983) 5.5" x...
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780436102974ISBN:0436102978
Description: V.G. +-original cloth (black) with gilt embossed lettering to spine-spine edges lightly bumped-o/w sound and tight-in d.w. -tinyspot of grazing to fore-edge f.c. o/w Near Fine. Not price clipped. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: MARTIN SECKER & WARBURG LTD
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780436102974ISBN:0436102978
Description: Published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd in 1983. Hardback with Dust jacket. Number of pages: 249. Condition: Very Good. May show some slight signs of wear. Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Description: Published by BCA in 1983, hardback with D/J, medium size, good in good D/W, sunned, wear to edges, internally very good, wear to head & tail of spine, spine sunned & faded, a good reading copy. Shipped from UK. Delivery is usually 2-3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 06/08/1998
ISBN-13:9780099268345ISBN:0099268345
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 28/03/1985
ISBN-13:9780140071153ISBN:0140071156
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"Michael K, dont la couleur de peau n'est jamais mentionnée, homme frustre et solitaire, quitte Le Cap accompagné de sa mère et se lance sur les routes.
Contrôles, interdictions, combats ne l'empêcheront pas d'accomplir son périple, remontant toujours plus loin au nord, en quête d'une ferme-refuge originelle où il espère vivre paisiblement.
Il parvient seul en ce lieu reculé, sa mère n'ayant pas supporté le voyage.
A partir de quelques graines retrouvées par hasard, il cultive son champ et crée son petit paradis.
Mais la guerre ne s'arrête pas, elle, et bien vite le rattrape. Pourtant, malgré les emprisonnements, la cruauté et le dénuement, Michael K ne se pliera pas aux lois des hommes...
Avec ce roman, J. M. Coetzee nous donne à lire une superbe parabole, à la fois sombre et éblouissante, sur la dignité humaine."
"I have been thinking how much a good book is like an organic thing. When the proper level of alchemical transformation is reached between a skilled author at the top of his game and a reader with the proper level of receptivity and empathy then something new and wonderful is birthed. You are no longer dealing with some pulped paper glued together with some artful(or not) cover protecting its frail glyphs but you are in the presence of something larger, vaster and infinitely more sacred than just a `good yarn' designed to kill some time. You actually are allowed to see the world through another pair of eyes, observe, act, fail to act, feel, watch an entire life spool out with Technicolor vividness, rest firmly embedded in another for the length of the journey that is the book. That is something rare and wonderful that isn't often to be found, but I think it is close to the root of why certain readers trumpet certain authors and books with the fervor of one who has found The Grail or some other talisman of sacred import.
The Life and Times of Michael K is my most recent experience where I closed a book at its end and felt I had been exposed completely to a real, living soul; where I felt the alchemy of a life lived thorough another take place. The book is the journey of one frail, physically malformed and mentally challenged man through the horrors of South African during the apartheid era. Michael K.'s journey is one that begins in poverty and oppression, travels outwards into greater malignancies and terrors, and ends in a cruel stasis that might be synonymous with death. And yet...this book never once struck me as being, depressed, morbid or overly sad. Through the strength of the writing I was so utterly with Michael most of the time, I could not stand outside dispassionately and think about what a terrible lot in life he had. And while the arc of Michael's journey is pitiful, one of mere subsistence for the greater part, there are also scenes of corresponding beauty that make you realize that even though Michael is a simpleton his connection to the land, to the earth, is something much more subtle and deep. Michael is a planter and a gardener and he finds what redemption he can from his hands delving into the red clay that is the body of South Africa and though he wouldn't know how to express it, there is sense of completeness and soul-solace he achieves there, that makes his life seem not wholly pitiful.
By letting this half-starved , hair-lipped, street urchin be the recipient of these small instances of grace, Coetzee is really delivering a quite passé and subversive message: the most sordid lives might still seem to the ones experiencing them eminently worth living. And by letting Michael K. remain his plodding, dim and unaware self throughout this book, after numerous exposures to the brutal injustices of apartheid, war and exile, Coetzee has also delivered a stirring paean to the capacity of the individual, no matter how slight and flawed, to stand and prevail against anything."
"inilah bukti, bahwa penanda teks bisa membuat kita merasa asing dan terpencil. mungkin karena buku ini adalah sebuah terjemahan. sehingga teks yang dilahirkan adalah teks yang prematur. belum sempurna betul. pun bisa jadi tidak benar-benar melalui rahim sang penulis.
seharusnya, kisah hidup michael k bisa mengharu biru. karena si coetzee ini adalah salah satu penulis moralis handal. terbukti dengan beberapa penghargaan yang dia peroleh.
saya suka ceritanya. saya takjud dengan kisah hidup k. penuh petualangan yang saya dambakan juga sebagai manusia. saya hanya tak bisa menikmati teks terjemahan ini. meski saya tak baca versi aslinya. pun saya tak berniat membacanya. karena secara garis besar, saya sudah dipahamkan kisah hidup k yang dihadapkan dengan pendirian teguh, kesewenang-wenangan aparat dan negara, kejujuran, dan moralitas alamiah.
buku ini cocok dibaca bagi seorang narsis akut yang munafik, sok kuasa, dan sombong. beberapa selebritis kita cocok sepertinya ya. :P."
"This was the first book I read by Coetzee and I wanted an introduction to his style before I tackled the great Barbarians, about which the literary world sings paeans of glory. When I finished this book, I went back to read the comments left by others because I believed that I must have picked up the wrong book. With only a handful of exceptions, the reviews I read seemed to indicate a brilliance I cannot locate.
That this books is evocative of the bleak and pointless existence of some people in South Africa, I can neither confirm nor deny, although I have no reason to doubt that it is. In fact, the book offers a wonderful social commentary about desire and effort and failure and hollowness. I am not objecting to the fact that I don't need to be reminded of any more of this as I really haven't seen it all that much in my relatively protected life. I just have a problem thinking that this depiction in any way approaches great literature.
I was at first captivated by Coetzee's prose, the simple statements and descriptions of the possible, outside of which exists the life which humans truly deserve. Real life, we are told, remains out of reach and authority is there to ensure that it does. It was simple, like Michael's thoughts of duty and existence, although surprisingly without any great emotional content. We are left to find that on our own, discover our own rage, as it were. I thought it a brilliant device.
Nevertheless, I became tired of the nefarious accoutrements with which Michael and his mother were continuously saddled in their lives. He is disfigured and his mother becomes ill and there is a great social upheaval by the military and Michael, despite his best efforts, cannot accomplish what he wants in his very simple way. I ceased to marvel at it very early and kept reading only to wince at each and every indignity imposed upon his life.
My criticism of this writing was that none of it depicted the characters very well, despite the fact that carrying someone in a wheelbarrow was perfectly depicted. The best defined personae were the couple who employed Michael K's mother and we only see them fleshed out when we look through their belongings they leave behind. In addition, I found the doctor very real and well thought out. His decision to make no effort to recapture Michael comes across as real, although flawed, a precursor to the grand portrayal of psychology as a man in Barbarians. Still, this is the only character in the book which has any depth and I found it strangely out of place.
Michael at the end dreams of going back to the wilderness, away from society. Are we really surprised? After allof his humiliating defeats atdeaing with people, he likes growing things better. So should we all. Perhaps if he had read Sartre, he would be able to echo that hell was other people. At least he comes by his conclusions honestly.
Still, the prose I thought so starkly descriptive in the beginning became overwrought and incommunicative, reminding me much of Dustin Hoffman's performance in Rain Man, very clever in the beginning but tiring and predictable after an hour or so. Coetzee attempts to shock us from time to time and I suppose that these efforts are intended to keep our minds off what became the droning tone. Perhaps, this is the mere monotonous tone of a spiritless life, as Paul said, the tinkling of a bell in the wilderness. It is the spiritual wasteland of mankind which believes that it is brave enough to look at by itself and still be proud. If this were true, I should think we would all be better off cultivating our own gardens like Michael. The difficulty, of course, is that we have become too civilized to believe in the life which doesn't come to us under cellophane. Thus, though I found this book worth reading, I think it falls short of what it intended to do."
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