Life and Times of Michael K

The Life and Times of Michael K by John Coetzee, 184 pages

Michael is a gardener.  To sow seed and care for growing things is what he knows, and what he wants.  Unfortunately, meek Michael is constantly in danger of being trampled into the dust.  Born with a harelip which caused him to be rejected by his mother - at least, until age and poverty made her dependent on him - and raised in an orphanage, what Michael wants most of all is to be left to fend for himself, free from those who would help him as well as those who would exploit him.  The State is, needless to say, his unnatural enemy, preoccupied as it is with official papers, civil wars, and labor camps.  Yet he does not reject all human society, to the contrary, he longs to live with others who are willing to receive what is offered them rather than forcing the world to give them what they want.

Much of The Life and Times of Michael K makes for dreary reading, immersed as it is in Michael's own perspective, knowing little of the ways of the world and yet understanding enough for tragedy.  In the end, this makes the book, and its protagonist, that much harder to ignore or forget.