http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780140074482-3 : This was recommended to me by Daniel after I mentioned how much I'd loved Disgrace (discussed in Feb.). Daniel recommended it as a "character study" - but I think I related much more to the main character in Disgrace. Michael K is a non-white in South Africa during the country's civil war. He attempts to take his ailing mother back to her hometown, but when she dies along the way, he struggles for survival, ending up in a work camp and eventually as a vagrant. The book is told mostly in the third-person focusing on Michael K, but one section is in the first-person from the perspective of a guard in the work camp. Michael K lives life on his own strange terms (I was reminded of Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener - "I prefer not to"). This novel, like "Disgrace" is marvelously written, but I did not at any point identify or understand Michael K - I found him hopeless while still remaining hopeful.
(* - listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Winner of the 1983 Man Booker Prize)
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