William Leith27 February 2014
Two authors, JM Coetzee and Paul Auster, a South African (now Australian) and an American, like to read each other’s novels and start writing letters to each other. This book of their letters is fascinating and well written. But it will also make you think about what sort of things you say when you write letters, and why they are particularly interesting.
Coetzee starts by writing about friendship. How, he asks, is friendship different from love? What follows is a friendship played out in letters between two extremely thoughtful guys. There’s stuff about Palestine, about Philip Petit’s wire-walking movie and about reading reviews of your books — or not. It’s fun and strangely gripping.
