by J.M.Coetzee (Author)
A megalomaniac Boer frontiersman wreaks hideous vengeance on a Hottentot tribe for undermining the 'natural' order of his universe with their anarchic rival order, mocking him and subjecting him to the humiliations of his own all too palpable flesh. A specialist in psychological warfare is driven to breakdown and madness by the stresses of a project of macabre ingenuity to win the war in Vietnam. Both the 18th-century Jacobus Coetzee and the 20th-century Eugene Dawn are in the business of pushing back the frontiers of knowledge and are dealers in death who denounce their own humanity and spurn their feelings of guilt. In these two narratives, Coetzee has crystallized in their absurdity and horror the extremes of scientific evangelism and heroic exploration.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: 1
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 06 Aug 1998
ISBN 10: 0099268337
ISBN 13: 9780099268338
Book Overview: The lives of a Boer frontiersman and a specialist in psychological warfare living two centuries apart are brought together as extremes of power politics in this brutal, ambitious debut novel from the Booker and Nobel Prize-winning J. M. Coetzee.