Life and Times of Michael K
by J.M. Coetzee
J.M. Coetzee
has won Nobel prize for literature. I
have read his novels ‘Disgrace’, ‘Slow man’, and yet to finish reading
‘Foe’. His Nobel
tag made me hesitant to approach his writings. This has to do with my doubts about many
authors who have won Nobel prize but whose works I found boring. I
recall one of the humorous comments of Mark Twain to the effect that ‘Literary Classics are meant for book-shelfs
for decoration and not for reading’.
One anecdote that stirred my interest
in J.M. Coetzee was made by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (from my memory – words are
mine);
‘One day a group of visitors had come
to meet me. Many of the visitors spoke
to me or asked questions about my work and life. Only after the meeting was over and guests
went away I recalled that one man sitting behind everyone was silent right from
the beginning to the end. After they
went away, I asked my son, who was that man?
He told me it was J.M. Coetzee. I was surprised and told my son that I
had desired to meet and speak to J.M.Coetzee for long. There was no occasion for that. He came to me
and I missed the opportunity. I felt guilty. My son told me that he had put a condition that he would not speak and he
should not be introduced. He wanted to
silently observe you’.
This was how Coetzee paid his tribute
to Marquez. I was impressed by his
humility. I was fascinated by Marquez
and if he likes a writer who is alive today, I thought I should read his
works. Then I searched for his books. Strange are the ways readers find authors and
their books.After going through the blurbs of his books. I chose to read ‘Disgrace’. Only after finished reading the book that I
came to know that it has been made into a film. I have not watched the
film. I found it different and relevant.
Its style, its simplicity imprinted this
story about crimes and retributions in a context that was new. South Africa in the days of apartheid is a
different universe altogether.
J.M.Coetzee writes in very simple
English and his style is shorn of any unnecessary embellishments, either in
words, style or metaphors. All his
embellishments are subterranean i.e. hidden in his narrative. His narrative is so direct and unassuming
that it appears almost pedestrian while reading. Only when you finish reading you will realize
that you have read an excellent book. You cannot separate style, narrative or
metaphor from the story/book. These do not hit you directly. These are inherent in the whole of the book
and therefore invisible till you finish and think about it. It was a different
experience for me. I will speak about ‘Disgrace’ on some other occasion.
Now I will come to ‘Life and Times of
Michael K’. This also is a very simple
and strait story. The narrative is very
linear and uncomplicated. But the story is
very realistic and it moves very slowly like its protagonist. Michael K is a (Black} South African. The house where he and his mother live is
destroyed in riots. You have to infer
who has indulged in violence keeping the South African situation in 1980s in
view. He desires to move away from the
City and encourages his sick mother to leave immediately to a place where she
had lived in her childhood. In South
Africa, black citizens have to obtain permission for leaving the place where
they are registered. His mother tells
him to apply for permission. He
applies. But he is not given any reply
in spite of his many visits to the offices where he gets rude replies to his
queries. He is told to wait for the
reply in his house. It was also not their house. He had occupied in after the riots. The owners have gone and they may come any day.
He also has doubts about getting the letter in his hand and it is not their
address. He never receives it. He decides to move without permission,
despite his mother’s objections. His
mother is so sick that she could not even sit.
He modifies a burrow into a hand pushed cart on his own after many
repairs he carries out. He has no money
to buy anything new including dresses.
(We have to presume that they cannot travel in public transport either
because of lack of money or because they are doing it illegally. - This is the
kind of writing Coetzee practices. You
are expected to have some previous knowledge about the place).
His journey from the city to his
mother’s native place forms the main story.
This is the period of apartheid.
His poverty, his determination to reach his mother’s place, his
sufferings during the journey, the impact of apartheid has on the individual
and the society – whites and blacks - forms the basics of the novel. His mother
sits in the make-shift burrow with a broken wheel. It is very hard to push the cart. Michael is also very weak. Their journey is illegal. They have to hide when govt vehicles come on
the highway. Policemen can shoot them. Fortunately,
they do not. Everywhere they are asked
about the permission. They travel when
the roads are empty or in the night.
Even then they have to hide often in the bushes and plants away from the
highway. It is a painful journey. The oppressive
regime is portrayed in its actions.
Author does not speak on his own. (I read this novel during the corona
lockdown. – It was very depressing to
read this kind of novel during such periods. But there are similarities. I remembered those workers (along with their
families) in India who walked hundreds of kilometers in hunger, just to reach
their hometowns. They are the Michaels
in India, I need not mention about our governments).
Michael K’s mother dies during the
journey, and the hospital gives him a vessel containing her ashes. There are countless problems enroute. He reaches a house (about which he is not sure-
he imagines this only by his mother’s descriptions of the place) in his
mother’s town. She might have been
brought up there as a worker’s daughter – there is no other way to presume. He has
to hide in a nearby forest. He fears everyone who he comes across including the
rebel fighters. Others may be informers
of the Government. Coetzee’s direct and
simple description helps us in understanding the situation in South America without
emotionalizing the difficulties. Michael
does not care about anything. He wants
to feel free even from hunger even when he is hungry. This is the kind of his strange obsession with
freedom. He seeks freedom from the
oppressive state of affairs. He tries
and achieves it in his own way. He does
not cooperate with the organs of state or employees of the govt. He suffers hunger on many days, even when the
food is made available. He spends two
terms in labour camps otherwise called jails for blacks, where they are
underfed, are made to work without adequate compensation. They are worse than
slaves. If they fall sick or die the
system does not bother. It is a very
depressing story (especially for reading during the period of lockdown for
corona virus).
One or two whites in a hospital try
to help him as he becomes so weak that they expect him to die sooner than
later. He refuses to eat in the labour camps or in the hospital. He is more used to hunger, he says (obviously
in protest against his treatment by the brutal and savage system). Coetzee writes so objectively that we suffer
with Michael but also keep our distance from him and think subsequently about
the system. I cannot describe this kind
of writing. Michael does not accept the help offered to him by the white
doctors or the jail in charge, to enable his escape. He escapes on his own. (The
white doctors sympathizes with him and wants to help him escape, but feels
happy when he escapes on his own, because if he is caught doctor may be held
responsible. The doctor also thinks that
Michael is so weak that he might die before reaching the city). Only at the end I realized that Michael
deliberately chooses hunger as a form of protest as well as a way of struggle
against the system. Strange are the ways
of literature. He was ready to die for
his escape, but would not accept the magnanimity of either the system or the
individuals, in keeping him at the subsistence level (it is actually survival
level, they only feed to so that he survives for the time being which
permanently damages his health).
Ultimately, he arrives back in the
city and meets three blacks, one man and two women. They offer him good food. He refuses because his weak body would not
take. Whatever little liquid he drinks he vomits. One of the black women offers the solution on
the suggestion of the black man, she offers sex. He is reluctant. He has no desire or energy. But her act
somewhat revives his survival instincts.
And he slowly regains his strength.
This is the first time I came across sex as a tool for survival. He had not experienced sex before. (Not to
talk of love).
The novel was very measured, simple
and the events of torturous nature are described naturally that we feel the
impact in rational part of our brain.
This novel imprints the unethical regime in our mind. This novel is a metaphor for blacks' suffering during apartheid in 1980s and their obsession to obtain freedom at any cost.
