Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II
OCLC 53341007 | | |
| Preceded by | Boyhood | |
|---|---|---|
| Followed by | Summertime | |
Youth (or Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II) (2002) is a semi-fictionalised autobiographical novel by
J. M. Coetzee, recounting his struggles in 1960s London after fleeing the political unrest of Cape Town
.
Plot summary
The story begins with the narrator living in
Third Programme and cinema, falling in love with Monica Vitti. He feels alienated from the natives and never settles down, always aware of the scorn they see him with. He engages in a series of affairs, none of them fulfilling to him in the slightest. He scorns people's inabilities to see through his dull exterior into the 'flame' inside him; none of the women he meets evokes in him the passion that, according to him, would allow his artistry to flourish and thus produce great poetry. By the end of the book he is working for International Computers on the Atlas project
.
External links
- Random House
- Review from the New York Times
- Youth: Anxiety in England, An analysis
- Review at Teen Ink
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