By Daily Press staff
John Maxwell Coetzee, 2003 Nobel Prize winner in literature, is the featured author in the Santa Monica Public Library’s “The Nobel: Writers of Distinction,” a display of works by authors at the temporary library.
Coetzee is a white South African novelist and essayist who often alludes to his country’s apartheid system and its post-apartheid transition to represent the desolation of the human condition. Among Coetzee’s best known works are the “Life and Times of Michael K and Disgrace,” which received Britain’s Booker Prize in 1983 and 1999. Coetzee is the first writer to win the prize twice.
In awarding the Nobel to Coetzee for the body of his work, the Nobel Academy noted the “well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance” of his work and described him as a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of Western civilization.”
The Academy notes there is a great wealth of variety in Coetzee’s work and a recurring pattern of hope as the protagonists are overwhelmed by the urge to sink but paradoxically derive strength from being stripped of all external dignity.
The library is at 1324 Fifth St. For more information, call (310) 458-8600.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 13, 2003. Read the original PDF.