The Pole: JM Coetzee's irresistible late style

The novella is a miniature masterpiece, touching on mortality, language, 'anti-nationalism' and the frequently cruel nature of the artistic practice

- Aditya Mani Jha

• Coetzee's prose has always had the disconcerting ability to probe away at the deepest recesses of the human heart

The Pole And Other Stories by J.M. Coetzee, published by Penguin Random House India 272 pages, ₹699

The philosopher Edward Said wrote that "Late style is what happens when art does not abdicate its rights in favour of reality". Said was talking about late-career works by great artists who refused to let advancing years or impending death corner them into creating 'timely' or 'ageappropriate' art-no accumulated wisdom here, no reconciliation with ageing and infirmity, no neat tying up of thematic cul-de-sacs for a peaceful' resolution. For Said, "lateness" as a stylistic feature involves "a quarrel with time"; these works represent "Death in a refracted mode, as allegory". Said would have loved J.M. Coetzee's recently published novella The Pole, a masterpiece-in-miniature where nearly every page contains counter-intuitive truth-telling about mortality, language, "anti-nationalism" and the frequently cruel nature of the artistic enterprise.