wtf I’m so pissed I even spent money on this book; I had to read it for class and I wish I had rented it so I could return it and never see it again. I’m not even going to bother giving this book a proper review. I wish it was possible to unread something. Don’t read “Diary of a Bad Year” unless you want to HAVE a bad year. This book is annoying- everything from its characters to the writing style to the word choice and the DAMN FORMATTING. The plot is senseless and horny and rambling and poorly constructed. In the past, I’ve only ever had one book I’ve said I “hated” but this book has just joined that list. ( )

Couldn’t get into it. A bit old man pervert. ( )

There are those novels that just make you glad you picked them up, that inspire you and make you want to keep reading long after it is over. This is not one of them. Given the reputation of the author, this book was extremely disappointing. Part libertarian/anarchist political views (possibly the authors? I suspect at least in part. He tries to get by with disguising them as those of a character in a novel) that are in many ways totally uniformed, laid against the "bad guy", a capitalist without a heart of gold who has a scheme that could injure the old man, and part sex tale of old man lusting after young girl who knows it and leads him on for her own jollies. It is written in the form of a diary (actually, two diaries - the old man and the young girl), which can work but does not work here. And the female character is just a mass of stereotypes, which the author tries to alleviate by a twist that makes her the "reasonable" voice between the two. It doesn't make a difference. It is hard to find any sympathy for any of the characters, or for that matter the author, who is responsible for this pretentious mess. ( )

I found it to be a very intimate account of his beliefs/feelings/aspirations/fears. This is not a book for everyone, though. This is the first book I read for Coetzee and it made me fall in love with his writing. I will definitely read him again and again. ( )

A special book: 3 stories in one, the diary of Coetzee on all kind of themes, which is a non-fiction part, and the involvement of a neighbour and her husband which are the basis of the two other stories, all readable on the same pages in this Dutch edition.
His personal notes on society give a small insight in what Coetzee thinks of democracy, war, left or right politics, religion and other themes. A bit weird and not always very consistent, which is a surprise for me.
Not sure as well that the "neighbour" stories are fiction which then again is nice as a setup.
Special book. ( )