The author skillfully puts you in the skin of a resourceful, but slightly retarded, man who attempts to rescue his mother and ends up having to survive on his own without any of the amenities of civilization, including food. Well worth a second read. ( )

There is a lot you can read into J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K; though I am not sure I have duly interpreted all that this disturbing tale – to me anyway – realises in its concise exposition of a semblance of a life amidst the most harshness of times.

This is simply a terse account of some years in the life of Michael K. Segregated into distinct parts, perhaps as an illustration of the society itself, the longer first portion starkly recounts, casually but deliberately, the hardships Michael endures: his removal from society when young, due to a physical deformity of an uncorrected hare lip; his subsequent flight out of a confined city pushing his dying mother in a crude hand-made cart, in an attempt to reach her childhood home; to his repeated internments in labour camps and his successful escapes and subsistence on the land – an inward treatise. The second part offers a portrayal of Michael through the eyes of a witness, a medical man, to a short piece of this life of Michael’s and the impressions gained from observing him from the outer, in an attempt to glimpse the inner. And the lasting, profound effect this scrutiny imparts. The final brief portion returns the reader back to Michael, and his thoughts; a closure of sorts; an attempt at an understanding at the least.

The circumstances of this chronicle essentially provide a mirror - to reflect back at ourselves the wretchedness of the world into which Michael is forced to inhabit. And the justification for the whole sorry state of affairs is continually laid at the feet of war: the control of freedom with curfews, the mandatory but unattainable permits to travel at will; and the basic lack of humanity. Fundamentally, Michael is an anomaly. His hare lip, with no earnest attempt by either side to remedy this, makes it difficult for him to communicate, so he is vastly misunderstood. His minimalism, his need for little, makes him misconstrued as underhanded and thus criminal. And his defencelessness has him preyed upon by those who should, in all decency, be protecting him. Because he is discerned as different, in the worst sense he must be captured and controlled, put in a cage; in the best he must be helped, offered aid. Never allowed independence, his nonchalance and lack of orthodoxy to these actions infer him as suspect. Only conformity and uniformity are acceptable traits – any anonymity, any disparity are blatantly used as a validation for abysmal actions.

I am always in awe of authors whose brevity of words supply a surfeit of ideas and emotions – writers who can create in a simple sentence a world of complexity and innuendo, as does this book. J. M. Coetzee may be evoking a hopeless struggle to survive against unrelenting intangible forces; and yet, somehow, I am left with the belief that the simple expediency of one small scoop, again and again - one small step after another, taken unremittingly and obstinately - may just overcome even the greatest of obstacles in the end.

(Mar 28, 2009) ( )

I enjoyed reading this the first time, but less so the second time, after reading his other book 'disgraced'.

In the midst of a futuristic South African civil war, Michael K lives to survive, and that is all. He has no wants and needs other than to be left alone. I spent the first portion of the book feeling sorry for Michael, who was born with a cleft lip and is alternately pitied and despised as he tries to find a bit of earth were he might live in peace. In the end, however, I found that facing the charity of the world was Michael’s greatest struggle of all, and I had succumbed to pitying him just as had those he met. Michael didn’t want to be different from anyone else.

Life and Times of Michael K was written in very straight-forward language that was both intriguing to read and challenging to embrace, leaving me with mixed feelings about this book. However, the writing perfectly matched the character of Michael K and properly told his story. Michael K’s story is the story of a human searching for himself and his purpose on the earth. Just as the language was both a challenge and a reprieve to read, the story of Michael’s life is both depressing and inspiring.

Life and Times of Michael K is a slim volume, just 184 pages, but I would argue that it is a masterful work that captures the struggling inherent in our human nature. I would recommend this book.

Also reviewed on my blog

Within a couple of pages, I suspected that the "K" in Michael K. was a reference to Kafka's The Trial, and upon investigation, I discovered that several critics and scholars have made the same observation. In light of this, Life and Times of Michael K might best be viewed as a hopeless struggle against unknowable and obscure outside forces--except that, for all the odds set against Michael K, Coetzee offers a glimmer of hope that a Kafkaesque struggle can be overcome.

Through a series of events that demonstrate his purity and strength, Michael K finds himself alone in the middle of a warzone in South Africa. Michael is a simple man, with few needs other than some sense of self-determination. Michael suffers from both physical and mental impairments, but despite these internal barriers, he is able to reach a determination of purpose that is beautiful and profound. Through this resolve, Michael can bear outside persecution with stoicism and grace; no external hardship affects his internal clarity.

Like and Times of Michael K may not necessarily be my favorite book, but Michael is one of my favorite characters ever created. He is one of the few characters in fiction who genuinely creates an example to be lauded and followed. ( )