Question 4: What do you think about JM Coetzee's writing style. What about his style is unique? Does that affect the reading of the novel?

Personally, I like Coetzee’s writing style as it is blunt and rather captivating. He uses many techniques that make his writing unique, some of which are:

-Sentence Structure: Coetzee uses short sentences (e.g. “Melanie is not in class. From his office he telephones a florist. Roses? Perhaps not roses. He orders carnations.” p.20) and a lot of commas and semi-colons (e.g. “Because, he says, a soulless image, a mere imnage on the retina, has encroached upon what has hitherto been a living thought.” p.21). These elements have a significant effect on the reading as they provide pauses and prevent it from being overly fluent.

-Narration/point of view: The novel is written in the 3^rd person limited point of view. The narrator reveals not only David Lurie’s character, but also his inner feeling, opinions and thoughts (e.g. “Your secret is safe with me, he would like to say.” p.6). Thus, the reader would view the story in Lure’s perspective.

-Description: Coetzee provides a lot of description of the physical appearances of all the characters Lurie meets. For example, at every encounter with Melanie Isaac, her clothes are described. This enables the reader to visualize the story as it happens.