The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee

It's not a childhood you want to visit in The Childhood of Jesus, a contemporary fiction novel by J.M. Coetzee about a lost child who is placed with a strange man in a country they know nothing about.

Summary:

David is a young boy who is separated from his mother while on a boat to a new world for them.  With him is a letter that was to be read by whoever found him in hopes of finding his mother when they landed.  Sadly, the note is lost during the chaos of the trip and David is left with Simon, an older gentleman who takes it upon himself to take care of the boy until his real mother could be found.  When the two land, they are given new names and new birthdays to go along with their new lives.  Non one knows of who they really are.  David has no memory of his mother, but Simon says he'll know who she is when he sees her.  Does Simon's idea of knowing David's mother by sight for out for the two strangers?

Review:

This is a first for me, but there was hardly I liked from this book at all.  I don't even know what made me think I would enjoy it.  I read Disgrace by Coetzee and hated it.  I really thought this one would be different.  But I was wrong.  From the beginning, Coetzee was way too fast in telling the story.  When it began, the two were already off the boat.  There should've been more in the beginning, especially a little background on why they were on the boat.  A little story about David being separated from his mother would've been nice to read.  

The characters were horrible.  I don't know if that was what Coetzee was going for, but all seemed self-centered.  And David was the absolute worse.  He showed no respect for anyone and always wanted his own way.  There were times that I wanted to scream at how horrible this kid was and I couldn't wait to get through this book because of David.  It was a struggle because all he ever did was throw tantrums if he didn't get his way.  Coetzee would've gotten more out of it if he wrote him as a child who had respect.

Coetzee really left the ending unfinished, it was horrible.  I rarely say that about a book, but that was all I can say about this one.  HORRIBLE!!! There was no ending and all I saw was David's tantrums getting him his on way.  Not a way to teach a child to live.

Only part I found redeeming in his book was that it was mostly written in dialogue.  I feel that when a book is written that way, you can really get inside the characters' minds and know what they're feeling.  Not that I really wanted to know what these people were feeling.  Still, it was the only thing I liked Coetzee did in this book.

I gave this book 1 out of 5 stars.  Coetzee didn't do anything for me in this book, much like Disgrace when I read it.  I can't even think of anyone I would recommend this to because I wouldn't want them to struggle through this book.

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