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Book Summary and Reviews of Slow Man by J. M Coetzee

Slow Man by J. M Coetzee

Slow Man

by J. M Coetzee

  • Published:
  • Sep 2005, 265 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

When photographer Paul Rayment loses his leg in a bicycle accident, his solitary life is irrevocably changed whether he likes it or not. Stubbornly refusing a prosthesis, Paul returns to his bachelor’s apartment in Adelaide, Australia, uncomfortable with his new dependency on others. He is given to bouts of hopelessness and resignation as he looks back on his sixty years of life, but his spirits are lifted when he finds himself falling in love with Marijana, his practical, down-to-earth Croatian nurse who is struggling to raise her family in a foreign land. As Paul contemplates how to win her heart, he is visited by the mysterious writer Elizabeth Costello, who challenges Paul to take an active role in his own life.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

'It could have been a good book...But because of one particular plot device....the novel refuses to sail very high in the water...at a cost for the good of the novel, Coetzee ushers onto the stage the eponymous character from his previous novel, Elizabeth Costello.' - PW.
'Where is the author of Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace, now that we need him most?' - Kirkus.

This information about Slow Man was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Read-Alikes

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    A vibrant, intimate, hypnotic portrait of one woman's life, from an important new writer.

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