Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II

{{Short description|2002 autobiographical novel by J. M. Coetzee}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = YouthCoetzee.jpg

| border = yes

| caption = First edition

| author = J. M. Coetzee

| cover_artist =

| country = South Africa

| language = English

| series =

| genre = Autobiographical novel

| published = 2002 (Secker and Warburg)

| media_type = Print (Paperback)

| pages = 176 p.

| isbn = 0-14-200200-3

| oclc = 53341007

| preceded_by = Boyhood

| followed_by = Summertime

}}

Youth (or Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II) (2002) is a semi-fictionalised autobiographical novel by J. M. Coetzee, recounting his struggles in 1960s London after fleeing the political unrest of Cape Town.

Plot summary

The story begins with the narrator living in Mowbray and studying at the University of Cape Town. After graduating in mathematics and English and in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre he moves to London in the hope of finding inspiration of becoming a poet and finding the woman of his dreams. However he finds none of this and instead, takes up a tedious job as a computer programmer working for IBM his work including checking punched cards submitted to an IBM 7090 for the TSR-2 project . He seeks refuge in the Third Programme and cinema, falling in love with Monica Vitti. He feels alienated from the natives and never settles down, always aware of the scorn they see him with. He engages in a series of affairs, none of them fulfilling to him in the slightest. He scorns people's inabilities to see through his dull exterior into the 'flame' inside him; none of the women he meets evokes in him the passion that, according to him, would allow his artistry to flourish and thus produce great poetry. By the end of the book he is working for International Computers on the Atlas project.

Reception

Upon release, Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II was generally well-received among British press. The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, New Statesman, and Spectator reviews under "Love It" and Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Independent On Sunday, and Literary Review reviews under "Pretty Good" and Independent, Observer, and TLS reviews under "Rubbish".{{cite news |title=Books of the moment: What the papers say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/152370164/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=4 May 2002 |page=60}}{{cite news |title=Books of the moment: What the papers say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/152370160/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=25 May 2002 |page=58}}

References

External links

[http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/youth/ Random House]
[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7DC123EF934A35754C0A9649C8B63 Review from the New York Times]
[http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/vanouse.html Youth: Anxiety in England], An analysis
[http://www.teenink.com/Past/2004/November/18340.html Review at Teen Ink]

Category:2002 novels

Category:21st-century South African novels

Category:Fiction set in the 1960s

Category:Autobiographical novels

Category:Novels by J. M. Coetzee

Category:Novels set in London

Category:Secker & Warburg books