The different shades love can take, the meaning of life and the symbiotic relationship between mind and body are hardly easy themes to take on separately, let alone all together. In his newest novel, "Slow Man," however, J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize winner and author of works such as 1999's "Disgrace," tackles these huge issues and more.
"Slow Man" takes the reader through a short yet highly important period in Paul Rayment's life. The book opens with this sixty-year-old man flying through the air - the result of a teenage driver colliding with his bicycle. Paul's leg is amputated and he stubbornly refuses a prosthetic one.
Due to the accident, Paul requires a caregiver to help him around the house. He soon becomes infatuated with the woman assigned to him, Marijana Jokic, and falls in love with both her and her children. As he deals with his current emotions and reflects back on his youth, a mysterious women, Elizabeth Costello, forces her way into his life and attempts to make him take some sort of action.
Despite Elizabeth's best efforts there is not a lot of action in "Slow Man;" rather, the pages are filled with conversation and Paul's thoughts. Though told in the third person, the book gives the reader a comprehensive view into the complex mind of Paul. His inner reflections are helpful to a college student who may find it difficult to connect with an older, handicapped man.
Yet Paul's constant musings slow the book down; things are almost excessively contemplated. Through his main character's stream of consciousness, Coetzee asks many excellent questions about life, death and love - questions which, if we were to stop and answer them, would force us to probe our own thoughts and beliefs, to come up with some sort of response we had not realized we had within us.
Unfortunately, the questions become so commonplace that the reader hardly stops to think about them by the middle of the book.
Paul's thinking also makes him a fairly annoying character. He condemns himself to stagnation from the very beginning when he refuses a prosthetic leg. Although Paul has logical, even noble, reasons for doing so, they are overshadowed by the fact that he refuses to do anything to better the situation.
Luckily, by the time the reader is thoroughly frustrated with Paul, Elizabeth emerges. There is some confusion surrounding this mystical character, as Coetzee never makes it clear where exactly she comes from. Perhaps an alter ego of Coetzee himself, Elizabeth is a writer and is apparently documenting Paul's story.
Whoever or whatever she is, she does what the reader is dying to do and tries to talk some sense into Paul. She attempts to make him take charge of his life and take action. Sadly most of her advice falls upon deaf ears. Still, Elizabeth is a welcome addition to the book.
The Jokic family is enjoyable to read about in their own right. They add variety to the story and it is easy to see how Paul falls in love with them. They are the opposite of him in many respects and their differences attract both Paul and the reader.
"Slow Man" drudges on through all its questions, inner reflections, and occasional mildly exciting incidents concerning the other characters until it reaches an entirely unsatisfying ending. As hopes that everything might culminate neatly are dashed, the reader is left with a question of his or her own: why exactly did I read this book?
It must be said that although his style takes some getting used to, it is very clear that Coetzee is an excellent writer. If the main character was slightly less thoughtful or the plot had something more to it, this would be an excellent book. However, Paul's ponderings force themselves upon you, leaving little room for personal interpretations and lots of room for saturating voids that could easily be filled with action of some sort.
If you are in the mood to contemplate an abundance of great questions, to put yourself in the mindset of a sixty-year-old handicapped man and to slowly and thoroughly lap up every idea and theme these language-drenched pages have to offer, then by all means, give this novel a try. But if you want something, for lack of a better word, faster, "Slow Man" is not for you.
