AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee reaffirms his place as one of the English language's most acclaimed authors with this fascinating examination of life, death and animals.
'These six stories by Nobel-Prize-winning J. M. Coetzee remind us that he is a writer whose language explores moral and emotional quandaries, often with wry humour. In the lead story, 'The Pole', set in Spain, concert pianist Witold attempts to play out a romantic fantasy with local music devotee Beatriz, who is considerably younger and whose marriage has gone cold. In person and in their correspondence, he is persistent, she resistant, but curious. It doesn't end quite as she might have imagined.
'The redoubtable character of Elizabeth Costello, now in her seventies, appears in four stories, engaging in philosophical discussions about death, motherhood and ethics with her adult children, in particular her son John. In the last story, 'The Dog', a young woman confronts a vicious dog- '"Curse you to hell!" she says. Then she mounts her bicycle and sets off up the hill.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
New Books for Summer Reading
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , January/February vol. 66 no. 1/2 2024; (p. 99-106)
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story -
Who Are These People?
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Review of Books , 12 October 2023;
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story'Coetzee’s most important books remain the ones he wrote before the Nobel, though another way to put that is to say that they’re the ones he wrote before leaving South Africa for a new life in Australia'
-
A Saving Skepticism : On J. M. Coetzee’s “The Pole”
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Los Angeles Review of Books , 30 October 2023;
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story 'IT IS NOT modish in polite society today to introduce somebody by their nationality, even worse to affix a definite article in front. One impeaches oneself as provincial when subscribing too rigidly to the importance of borders. So J. M. Coetzee, the South African writer who now lives in Australia, has chosen a crotchety title for his most recent novella: The Pole. Under this banner he suggests to the world again a general atmosphere of existential homelessness for his characters, a sense of time out of joint.'(Introduction)
-
[Review] The Pole
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: World Literature Today , vol. 97 no. 5 2023; (p. 56-57)
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story 'IN MUSIC, when one wants to sound impressive, it’s best to play something fast; prestissimo gets the audience’s pulse up. If what is desired, however, is to play impressively, one must play something slow. Without the distraction of speed, the protective flurry of notes, your musicality—your artistic competence —is laid bare. With The Pole, J. M. Coetzee is playing (writing) as slowly as possible.'(Introduction)
-
y
J.M. Coetzee’s 'The Pole and Other Stories'
Southbank
:
Australian Book Review, Inc.
,
2023
26600712
2023
single work
podcast
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story'This week, on the ABR podcast, literary critic and editor Geordie Williamson reviews J.M. Coetzee’s new short story collection The Pole and Other Stories. At the age of eighty-three Coetzee has again proved himself a ‘true and loving creator’, argues Williamson, by denying his characters endings or wholeness – ‘the great lie of art’. Listen to Geordie Williamson with ‘Last things: J.M. Coetzee’s antipodal forces’, published in the July issue of ABR.' (Introduction)
-
Last Things : J.M. Coetzee’s Antipodal Forces
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 455 2023; (p. 36-37)
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story 'The aphorist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg likened reviews to ‘a kind of childhood illness to which newborn books are subject to a greater or lesser degree’, like measles or mumps, which kill a few but leave the rest only mildly marked. But how should we consider reviews of books that come late in an author’s career? In instances such as these, the reviewer is tempted to avoid any chance of career-ending pneumonia, applying a nurse’s gentling touch to the text. Often the result is career summation, a soft peddle at indications of decline.' (Introduction) -
‘Exciting’, ‘Bold’, ‘Laugh Out Loud’ : The Best Australian Books Out in July
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 6 July 2023;
— Review of Wifedom : Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life 2023 single work biography ; The Scope of Permissibility 2023 single work novel ; The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story ; Restless Dolly Maunder 2023 single work novel -
In J.M. Coetzee’s Latest Story Collection, Questions of the Soul Become Urgent as the Body Becomes Frail
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 18 July 2023;
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story'Devotees of J.M. Coetzee’s writing will be delighted at the publication of The Pole and Other Stories. What may be surprising to some about this collection is that the stories have all appeared before in some form – but not always in English.' (Introduction)
-
The Pole and Other Stories by JM Coetzee Review – If This Is His Final Book, It Is a Great One
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 July 2023;
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story'The Nobel laureate’s new collection of stories is concerned with death, desire and old age, glinting with flashes of humour and grand, existential strangeness'
-
J. M. Coetzee The Pole and Other Stories
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 29 July - 4 August 2023;
— Review of The Pole and Other Stories 2023 selected work short story'What is love? It’s a question we’ve struggled with since Eve, Adam, the asp and the apple. It has inspired a billion songs. The one that comes to mind as I think of J. M. Coetzee’s The Pole and Other Stories is the 1939 jazz standard “Comes Love (Nothing Can Be Done)”: “Don’t try hiding cause there isn’t any use / You’ll start sliding when your heart turns on the juice”.' (Introduction)
