The narrator of Youth, a student in the South Africa of the 1950s, has long been plotting an escape from his native country: from the stifling love of his mother, a father whose failures haunt him, and what he is sure is impending revolution. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, and saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world, wherever that may be, ...
The narrator of Youth, a student in the South Africa of the 1950s, has long been plotting an escape from his native country: from the stifling love of his mother, a father whose failures haunt him, and what he is sure is impending revolution. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, and saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world, wherever that may be, he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity and transform it into art.
Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing. An awkward colonial, a constitutional outsider, he begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested and continually found wanting. Set against the background of the 1960s-Sharpeville, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam-Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness, isolated and adrift, turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity.
![[南非] J.M.库切](https://img1.doubanio.com/view/personage/m/public/cca66dbd7eaa9cf72258d23f0e20537d.jpg)
J.M.库切 作者
他念他
浙江文艺出版社2004版
姜紫
浙江文艺出版社2004版
0 有用 Gingerbreadx 2014-07-16 15:13:55
略压抑
0 有用 chacha 2011-07-17 15:20:45
a wanna-be-artist young man's thoughts about poetry, women, and himself
0 有用 suyanz 2016-11-04 08:14:36
年轻人刚到大城市的经历这点很能引起同感。除了工作之余白日梦幻想追求艺术上的成就之外，显得最迫切的就是男主在荷尔蒙压迫下的生理需求，所有他能看上眼的女孩子都被擒获并被马上抛弃，然而同时却在自问爱情在哪里。
0 有用 Moondance 2012-11-19 19:10:55
the mirror or my life
1 有用 Breadhead 2019-07-06 12:48:21
一个青年艺术家的心理历程。作为移民来到异国的大城市，成为初代程序员，并屡屡看到成为中产移民的机会，和家庭以及故国的关系，对于强权和政治的看法，感情生活和艺术追求的分分合合。库切在其中引用的艾略特对诗的观点可以说是他自传小说三部曲的题眼，那就是艺术作品的本质是记录去私人化的个体经验。