Elizabeth Costello

"There’s a long chapter in which Costello gives a lecture about ethical vegetarianism. It’s my understanding that this lecture was one that Coetzee gave, as himself, in his ‘real’ life. He’s created this alter ego, in a way, a female academic, and he sets this fictional/non-fictional self through a world that’s essentially identical to our own. In this way, I feel this book carves out a little space between the novel and the essay, which is a place I’m very interested in exploring. Many things; Coetzee is a genius. But you have to hand it to a novelist getting his essayistic lectures to do double duty. He writes with total authority and joy."