Slow Man

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Overview

When photographer Paul Rayment loses his leg in a bicycle accident, his solitary life is irrevocably changed whether he likes it or not. Stubbornly refusing a prosthesis, Paul returns to his bachelor's apartment in Adelaide, Australia, uncomfortable with his new dependency on others. He is given to bouts of hopelessness and resignation as he looks back on his sixty years of life, but his spirits are lifted when he finds himself falling in love with Marijana, his practical, down-to-earth Croatian nurse who is struggling to raise her family in a foreign land. As Paul contemplates how to win her heart, he is visited by the mysterious writer Elizabeth ...

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More About This Book

Overview

When photographer Paul Rayment loses his leg in a bicycle accident, his solitary life is irrevocably changed whether he likes it or not. Stubbornly refusing a prosthesis, Paul returns to his bachelor's apartment in Adelaide, Australia, uncomfortable with his new dependency on others. He is given to bouts of hopelessness and resignation as he looks back on his sixty years of life, but his spirits are lifted when he finds himself falling in love with Marijana, his practical, down-to-earth Croatian nurse who is struggling to raise her family in a foreign land. As Paul contemplates how to win her heart, he is visited by the mysterious writer Elizabeth Costello, who challenges Paul to take an active role in his own life.

In this new book, Coetzee offers a profound meditation on what makes us human, on what it means to grow older and reflect on how we have lived our lives. Like all great works of literature, Slow Man is a novel that asks questions but rarely provides answers; it is a portrait of a man in search of truth. Paul Rayment's accident changes his perspective on life, and as a result, he begins to address the kinds of universal concerns that define us all: What does it mean to do good? What in our lives is ultimately meaningful? Is it more important for one to feel loved or cared for? How do we define the place that we call “home”? In his clear and uncompromising voice, Coetzee struggles with these issues, and the result is a deeply moving story about love and mortality that dazzles the reader on every page.

Editorial Reviews

Ward Just
I take this novel to be a scrutiny of disappointment and irresolution, a chicken-and-egg affair that does not yield satisfactory answers. Still, Coetzee's narrative is a bracing corrective to the blustering do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night. For Rayment, one chance after another has come and gone, some seized, most not. And when enough chances have come and gone, it can seem altogether wiser to maintain things as they are… J. M. Coetzee has much to say about these matters and many others in Slow Man—beautifully composed, deeply thought, wonderfully written.
— The New York Times Book Review
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
From The Critics
Nobel-winner Coetzee (Disgrace) ponders life, love and the mind/ body connection in his latest heavy-hitter; he also plays a little trick. When retired photographer Paul Rayment loses his leg in a bicycle accident, his lengthy, lonely recuperation forces him to reflect on a life he deems wasted. The gloom lifts with the arrival of brisk, efficient Marijana Jokic, his Croatian day nurse, with whom Paul becomes infatuated. (He also takes a special interest in Marijana's teenage boy-the son he never had.) It's here, while Paul frets over how to express his feelings, that Coetzee (perhaps unsure if his dithering protagonist can sustain the book) gets weird: the distinguished writer Elizabeth Costello, eponymous heroine of Coetzee's 2003 novel, comes for a visit. To Paul's bewilderment, Costello (Coetzee's alter ego?) exhorts him to become more of a main character in the narrative, even orchestrating events to force his reactions. Some readers will object to this cleverness and the abstract forays into the mysteriousness of the writing process. It is to Coetzee's credit, however, a testament to his flawless prose and appealing voice, that while challenging the reader with postmodern shenanigans, the story of how Paul will take charge of his life and love continues to engage, while Elizabeth Costello the device softens into a real character, one facing frailties of her own. She pushes Paul, or Paul pushes Elizabeth-both push Coetzee-on to the bittersweet conclusion. Agent, Peter Lampack. (On sale Sept. 26) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780670034598
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Publication date: 9/22/2005
  • Pages: 208
  • Sales rank: 1,194,688
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.50 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

J. M. Coetzee
J. M. Coetzee
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature to South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, a towering literary talent “who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider.” The Academy cited the astonishing wealth of variety in Coetzee’s stories, many of which are set against the backdrop of apartheid.

Biography

John Maxwell Coetzee was born in 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa. He is of both Boer and English descent. His parents sent him to an English school, and he grew up using English as his first language.

At the beginning of the 1960s he moved to England, where he worked initially as a computer programmer. He studied literature in the United States and has gone on to teach at several American universities, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Adelaide.

Coetzee made his debut as a writer of fiction in 1974. His first book, Dusklands was published in South Africa. His international breakthrough came in 1980 with the novel Waiting for the Barbarian. In 1983 he won the Booker Prize in the United Kingdom for Life and Times of Michael K. In 1999, he became the first author to be twice awarded the Booker Prize, this time for his novel, Disgrace. In 2003, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. The Academy cited the astonishing wealth of variety in Coetzee's stories, many of which are set against the backdrop of apartheid.

In addition to his novels, Coetzee has written numerous essays and interviews. His literary criticism has been published in journals and collected into anthologies.

Good To Know

Described by friends as a reclusive and private man, Coetzee did not make the trip to London in 1984 to receive the Booker Prize for Life and Times of Michael K, nor when he again won the prize for Disgrace in 1999.

His 1977 novel, In the Heart of the Country, was filmed as the motion picture Dust in 1985.

Coetzee has also been active as a translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature.

In 2002, Coetzee emigrated to Australia.

    1. Also Known As:
      John Maxwell Coetzee
    2. Hometown:
      Adelaide, Australia
    1. Date of Birth:
      February 9, 1940
    2. Place of Birth:
      Cape Town, South Africa
    1. Date of Death:
      April 3, 1991
    2. Place of Death:
      Vevey, Switzerland

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Customer Reviews
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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 6, 2010

    Slow Man equaled Slow Moving

    Although I related to Paul's desire for privacy and some form of independent living after he loses his leg in a bike accident, I couldn't understand his obsession with the aide he hired to assist him and her family. And Elizabeth Costello's complicated presence and single-minded desire to get Paul to make any sort of decision with his life - when the two of them were strangers to one another - was baffling. Very abrupt ending.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 12, 2010

    Disappointing

    The first quarter of this book is interesting. We follow Paul Rayment after an accident that leaves him without a leg. (This happens in the first few pages.) We're in his mind, experiencing what he does, following him through the few people who care for him. Then Elizabeth Costello arrives and the book goes downhill. She arrives from no where and acts as an authorial voice. She knows things she couldn't possibly know and she messes with Paul's mind. This interloper never develops. We're led to believe there's something mystical about her, perhaps other-worldly.

    I did not like her because she was neither a "real" character nor a true authorial voice. Coetzee plays with this technique--that Elizabeth is his voice in the story, but for what purpose? In places we find her asking the same questions we do: why doesn't Paul act in one way or another? Why doesn't he leave his situation? Etc. And nothing really happens. It's as if the author is begging his character to do something and he doesn't. I don't feel Paul has changed by the end, which is why I was disappointed. This story had a lot of potential.

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  • Posted December 3, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    Good baby boomers novel

    Yes, I am getting old, so I did appreciate this novel. Twenty years ago I probably would have said "I don't get it." The story is good on the surface level and it is also a thoughful exploration of what to do with our remaining years. Do we fill them with life or hide away in our comfort zone?

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    Posted September 4, 2011

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    Posted July 1, 2010

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    Posted May 20, 2009

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