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E-mail Message: I thought you might be interested in this item at http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52853016 Title: Elizabeth Costello Author: J M Coetzee Publisher: New York : Viking, ©2003. ISBN/ISSN: 0670031305 9780670031306 OCLC:52853016

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Elizabeth Costello

Author:	J M Coetzee
Publisher:	New York : Viking, ©2003.
Edition/Format:	Book : Fiction : English : 1st American edView all editions and formats
Summary:	Elizabeth Costello is a distinguished and aging Australian novelist whose life is revealed through a series of eight formal addresses. From an award-acceptance speech at a New England liberal arts college to a lecture on evil in Amsterdam and a sexually charged reading by the poet Robert Duncan, the author draws the reader toward its astonishing conclusion. The novel is, on its surface, the story of a woman's life Read more...
Rating:	based on 1 rating(s) 1 with a review

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Details

Genre/Form:	Fiction
Additional Physical Format:	Online version: Coetzee, J. M., 1940- Elizabeth Costello. New York : Viking, c2003 (OCoLC)606990027
Material Type:	Fiction, Internet resource
Document Type:	Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors:	J M Coetzee Find more information about:
ISBN:	0670031305 9780670031306
OCLC Number:	52853016
Description:	230 p. ; 22 cm.
Contents:	Realism -- Novel in Africa -- Lives of animals, the philosophers and the animals -- Lives of animals, the poets and the animals -- Humanities in Africa -- Problem of evil -- Eros -- At the gate -- Letter of Elizabeth, Lady Chandos.
Responsibility:	J.M. Coetzee.
More information:	Contributor biographical information Publisher description Sample text

Abstract:

Elizabeth Costello is a distinguished and aging Australian novelist whose life is revealed through a series of eight formal addresses. From an award-acceptance speech at a New England liberal arts college to a lecture on evil in Amsterdam and a sexually charged reading by the poet Robert Duncan, the author draws the reader toward its astonishing conclusion. The novel is, on its surface, the story of a woman's life as mother, sister, lover, and writer. Yet it is also a profound and haunting meditation on the nature of storytelling.

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WorldCat User Reviews (1)

on the respect due animals (the lives of the animals)

by dacase (WorldCat user published 2011-01-12) Excellent

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This is one of the best literary treatments of the issue of so-called animal rights. I beg the pardon of my readers who have not read it for giving away the essence of the issue from Coetzee's point of view, which is that so much of our sentimental feelings towards animals is due to our own sense of mortality. We irrationally over-value non-humans because we alone know that we are mortal, and what that entails. Animals have no clue. Their naivety in this is what causes (part of what causes) some of us to sentimentalize them, indeed to see in the 'stupid' critters moral worthiness virtually beyond human comprehension/attainment. It is doubtful how many readers understand this central thesis of the novel, much less the dog, cat, and horse (etc.) lovers for whom he is trying to get around the barriers of ignorance to educate, as only a true expert writer of fiction can hope to attain. Elizabeth Costello's simultaneous pride and embarrassment to her scientific professor son, upon the receipt of her life-long writing success ceremoniously honored at his university, is a beautiful story of the contradictions of animal rights sentiments. The whole theme is exquisitly captured by the incident in their car when leaving the ceremonies, alone together, when Elizabeth breaks down in tears in recognition of her obviously illogical talking in front of the most expert academics life knows, to which her son consoles, (paraphrasing) "It's okay, it's almost over." It is her life, in fact, that is almost over, not the simple embarrassment of this episode, and in particular her love of her son (their relationship of mother to son, son to mother) being a big part of that, and it is just nothing more or less than that--an end to a long life of a highly-fulfilled, productive, basically satisfied person who mothered well. It is just a sad thing which some try to cope with it with animal sentimentality. How better than a novel such as this to try to come to grips with such a reality? This is a monumentally valuable book that everyone should read, re-read, and study.

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