“Summertime”

In J.M. Coetzee’s fictionalized memoir “Summertime,” narrator Mr. Vincent creeps into the life of the recently deceased John Coetzee and tries to make sense of the man’s opacity as writer through interviews with the people he knew. Three women tell illuminating anecdotes from Coetzee’s life, depicting him as a misfit and sexually inadequate. “What ‘Summertime’ offers is a subtle, allusive meditation: an intriguing map of a weak character’s constricted heart struggling against the undertow of suspicion within South Africa’s claustrophobic, unpoetic, overtly macho society,” writes The Independent. This is the third in a series of quasi-memoirs, and Coetzee cleverly uses his doppelganger to walk the fine line between fiction and truth. The Observer notes, “‘Summertime’ is both an elegant request that the sum of Coetzee’s existence as a public figure should be looked for only in his writing, and ample evidence, once again, why that request should be honored.” Coetzee deftly portrays the public fascination with the private lives of those who create.