Slow Man

Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee

It took me FOREVER to finish this book, but for that you can blame being a college senior. I had made it halfway through by the time classes started, but then I had no time for the next two weeks to get any further than that. I literally didn’t even have time to pick the book up off the coffee table to move it.

The basic plot of the book centers around an elderly man who, after a terrible accident, has lost most of one of his legs. Because of this and his refusal to get a prosthesis, he has a nurse who comes to his home to take care of him and his stump. That’s basically the start of all these things that happen in the book.

This wasn’t the most interesting book to me, mostly because it was centered around an older gentleman, so it wasn’t really something I could relate to.  Also, I’m never really a fan of books where an older male character (like, old older) falls in love with a younger woman, especially when that woman is currently married.

Also, I really really didn’t like one of the characters who showed up at one point. The main character, Paul, didn’t like her either, but then suddenly they were spending time together and talking almost civilly and he wasn’t asking her to leave anymore. That made me really mad.

Other than that, I really didn’t have much of a reaction to this book. It didn’t really leave much of an impression on me.

Overall, I’d give it a 6/10, maybe a 5.5. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really good either. Just kind of unremarkable with characters to whom I couldn’t relate.

There are several other books by J.M. Coetzee on my list, and I hope that I like them better than I liked this one.

Read on!

Molly