Coetzee's "Foe": The Art of Writing

A little more than half way through Coetzee's Foe. The second part (more than half the book page-wise) is a marked departure from DeFoe's novel. It's largely about Susan Barton in England (Friday is with her; Cruso died on the way back), her give and take with Mr. Foe, perhaps something about Art and the process of writing.

Through Barton we hear:
Teasing and braiding can, like any craft, be learned. But as to determining which episodes hold promise (as oysters hold pearls), it is not without justice that this art is called divining. Here the writer can of himself effect nothing: he must wait on the grace of illumination.

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