Product Description

A small miracle of a book...of marvellous intricacy and overwhelming power' - The Washington Post Book World. Coetzee reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe, directing our attention to the seduction and tyranny of storytelling itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19634 in Books
• Published on: 1987-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Lyrical, disturbing and brilliant
Coetzee - a male South African Booker Prize winning author - has got right into the mind and body of a young woman from 18th Century England - and cast her away on none other than Robinson Crusoe's island. There, she finds an ageing Crusoe doggedly building terraces, day after day, with his mysteriously tongueless black slaveboy, Friday. Crusoe accepts Susan's presence, but is deeply set in his ways. The island is his world and his - to her - reasonless building of the terraces, is his way of bringing order to an otherwise terrifyingly lawless existence. Once, Crusoe has a fever and Susan comforts him with her body - an event most beautifully and sparely described - but they become no closer as friends. Finally a sail appears and the trio head back to England. But Crusoe dies in Susan's arms en route and she, with Friday now at her heels, determines to find an author who can properly tell their tale. This is when she meets Defoe - who becomes in part her potential saviour, providing her with sustenance - but also her 'Foe', because in his attempts to make the book appealing to the widest public, he actuallly writes her out of the tale... This is a book all about the power of words, the search for a voice and Truth. I won't give away the amazing ending, but simply recommend this extraordinary book to anyone who loves a gently demanding, but superb, read.

Not for those looking for a 'ripping yarn'
If you want an essay on the nature of storytelling and writing then this is the book for you. Before becoming disappointed by Coetzee's characterisation of Susan Barton, one must remember that she is a concept used to cast a light on the process of writing - from how a story is born to what is presented to the reading public. Coetzee examines in detail how our own experiences and preconceptions can form our personal version of 'truth' and then relates this to the burden of the author. Authorial responsibility is studied as we consider DeFoe writing romances in contrast to the faithful recording of events - those familiar with DeFoes work will remember that the original 'Robinson Crusoe' and the excellent 'Journal of the Plague Year' were fiction masquerading as a journalistic recording of time and events. It is this that is evoked as Susan Barton struggles with the idea of Foe embellishing her castaway history to make it more appealing to the reader. Every writing cliche is visited and put under the microscope - from the writer in his lonely garret starving for his art to the idea that those writing for the titillation of the reader and not for art are prostituting the truth. How ironic for the reader who reads 'Foe' hoping for a ripping yarn! Other issues are thrown in for good measure - for example the importance of language, also self expression; I found the essay rather a mish-mash of issues and ideas without feeling it ever really gelled - perhaps a deliberate ploy on the part of Coetzee who seems to prefer a sledgehammer to make his point and draw your attention to the irony. Certainly clever, 'Foe' is a truely 'literary' exercise that one would read for worthiness rather than pleasure, but for those who are not students of literature and who are looking for an interesting (female) perspective on a classic, try 'The Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys or Alison Fell's 'The Mistress of Lilliput'.

Strange
A rather strage book telling the story of a woman who became stranded on an island inhabited by Cruso and his slave Friday. The novel explores the difficulties of adjusting to mainstream life after the lonliness of the island, and the corruption of the woman's story at the hands of Mr Daniel Defoe. The book is a little confusing at the end, and is a little on the short side, but it is still a fascinating read.