The declaration of a Rebel | Waiting for the Barbarians: A Novel (Penguin Ink) (The Penguin Ink Series) |...

A master work | Waiting for the Barbarians: A Novel (Penguin Ink) (The Penguin Ink Series) | J. M. Coetzee

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	• Waiting for the Barbarians: A Novel (Penguin Ink) (The Penguin Ink Series) J. M. Coetzee Penguin (Non-Classics), 2010 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 84 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fear not...

"Fear grows in darkness; if you think there's a bogeyman around, turn on the light." ~Dorothy Thompson

Waiting for the Barbarians is about an aging magistrate in a nameless town in a nameless empire. The town is a frontier town on the edge of the empire near a desolate desert. The magistrate lives a peaceful life until an army from the capital arrives to prepare for an attack on the nomadic barbarians who pose a threat to their safety. Or do they? The army captures some of the barbarians and brutally tortures and kills many of them. The magistrate turns a blind eye to the atrocities as there is little he can do. He becomes involved with one of the barbarian girls who was blinded and crippled. His relationship with her leads him to be seen as a traitor to his people and brings about dire consequences.

The primary theme of the book is fear. Fear will cause people to do crazy things. As Bertrand Russell once said, "Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." The book reminds me a lot about the fear that Americans had of the Japanese Americans just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Suddenly they were guilty with no way of proving innocence. It also reminds me of the fear Americans had of the Russians during the Cold War. We were told that they were the enemy and everyone was certain of an imminent nuclear war. Yes, there were reasons to be afraid, but in the end nothing happened. The Russian people were just afraid of us as we were of them.

The book was at times brutal and crass and may not be for everyone but it was beautifully written. This was the first time I have read a book by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee. His skillful writing encourages a desire to write but at the same time discourages you because you have a better understanding of what it truly takes to be a great writer. If anything should be taken from this book, it should be to fear not. Maybe I will get around to writing that book that has been revolving in my head.

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The declaration of a Rebel

Waiting for the Barbarians is one of Coetzee's early works, bearing the characteristics of his early phases of literary evolution.

The hero is an employee of the Empire, a magistrate running a borderland settlement, fencing it from the natives, the barbarians. In the typical Coetzee style, the Empire symbolizes the colonial government of nineteenth century South Africa. The magistrate's feelings towards the natives take a dramatic turn when he falls for a native girl orphaned by the Empire. At first, his sympathies for the natives are mild but when he sees an interrogation of the natives by the Empire employees, things start to change. At last he turns against the Empire completely in a quixotic revolt against the racist injustice. He is imprisoned and persecuted by the Empire. The title is an irony over the racist situations. After the revolt of the hero, the Empire and its employees are called the barbarians.

The style of Coetzee improves dramatically in this work. We almost see the grace and ease of `Disgrace'. Waiting for the Barbarians is a pleasant though sad read. It flows smoothly. The use of present simple as narration makes it a little dreamlike. Though events and thoughts blend in but the reader can easily differentiate between thoughts and events.

Coetzee is still a fervent socialist and many dialogues in the novel hint at the Cold War situations.
It is a sympathetic narrative which touches one's heart, but it is clearly the imagination of a late-twentieth century white male with liberal commitments. The setting of the novel in early nineteenth century does not seem natural. While the colonialists were definitely cruel and racist, judging them according to the present standards seems a little harsh. As compared to a full-blooded support of the natives by a white man today, even a slight insubordination to the colonial authorities on the part of a nineteenth century colonialist employee was a far greater act of bravery. Nikita Khrushchev may remain a reviled Commie figure in the West, but if he had not given that famous secret speech of 1956, denouncing Stalin, then the path for many who later brought down the Communist regime would not have cleared. We have to see history in this evolutionary light. Waiting for the Barbarians is essentially a twentieth century novel with all the latest liberal inputs and we witness the grafting of a twentieth century intellect over a nineteenth century landscape.

Coetzee is still to disavow himself from the commitment to the political Left. This he would do in Life and Times of Michael K.

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A master work

A stirring novel about the dehumanizing effects of colonialism, both on the colonizer and the native, Waiting for the Barbarians is written in the grand tradition of Conrad's great novels. Here Coetzee presents one man's attempt to find meaning and human worth in a world that strips people of these basic rights. And he does it with economny, speed, beauty, and exacting honesty.

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Not The Best Coetzee

JM Coetzee is one of my favorite writers. He has a knack for striking at the human heart. His work is rarely sentimental but stirs great emotion in me.

As far as Waiting for The Barbarians goes, I admire the structure and the intellect displayed in the writing but it didn't strike me the way most of Coetzee's work does.

It is an allegory that could apply to any armed conflict. In a frontier town of "The Empire", a magistrate has lived peacefully arbitrating for many years. He has reached a comfortable point in his life. "The Empire" has decided that some of the nomadic tribes, "The Barbarians" are a threat to them. A group from the capital arrive in the town and proceed to seek out and question ("torture") some of The Barbarians for information on the uprising. The Magistrate knows that these people are persecuting the helpless and that their mission is useless. At first he chooses to say nothing.

Later the Magistrate acts in ways unpleasing to The Empire in fraternizing with The Barbarians. He is stripped of his duties, becomes a pariah and an enemy of The Empire.

In his mind, The Magistrate, would like to stand up and lead the people against injustice but he is largely an ineffectual and ignored presence who's more an annoyance to the oppressors than anything else.

This novel is a good allegory for the stupidity of War and conquering forces. It also outlines the indifference of many to the concepts of justice.

It is frustrating to read at times. It has important and well thought out themes.

I didn't find it to be as striking and emotionally impactful as some of Coetzee's other work.

I'm on the fence about recommending it. It has some very good aspects but I don't feel that it is one of Coetzee's stronger works.

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Barbarians

The book was in good condition, but had many, many notes written in it. I didn't mind this most of the time, as the notes were somewhat helpful to my own understanding of the book, but they were also distracting and sometimes irrelevant. It would have been nice to know before I bought the book that it was written in, unless that is assumed when purchasing a used book.

A modern classic, this early novel by Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee centers on the crisis of conscience and morality of the Magistrate-a loyal servant of the Empire working in a tiny frontier town, doing his best to ignore an inevitable war with the "barbarians."

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