Book Review: 'Foe' by J.M. Coetzee

Straight from Defoe's narrative 'Robinson Crusoe', I plunged into 'Foe' mainly because these two books make up a section of my Uni degree. 

In 'Foe', Susan Barton becomes a castaway, being washed up on Cruso's (sic) island, where the intelligent, pious Crusoe portrayed by Defoe has become a grumpy, unfriendly man, and where Friday is portrayed as a mute simpleton, in an almost Conradian way. In saying that, the theme of 'Foe' seems to centre on the lack of words/speech given to him in Defoe's novel; how the oppressed (both women and "savages") are not given the power of speech, their muteness allowing others to effectively write their life stories for them, thereby denying them their freedom and true identity. This can be seen in Susan's frequent musings as to whether Friday is actually a cannibal, and is depicted symbolically by Friday's large empty mouth - devoid of tongue, devoid of words. This "black hole" is then paralleled to a black pupil of an eye, blackness into which nothing can be seen, and truth is concealed. I got to thinking of Kurtz's deathbed scene in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' where he died with his mouth open "giving him a voracious aspect". Could Friday's black hole of a mouth symbolise "the horror! the horror!" exclaimed by Kurtz? Also, just as Kurtz's final words were uninterpretable (is that a word?), those of Friday - the an incomprehensible "stream" of water that exits his mouth in the last scene - and indeed the last section of the book, are too. Hmmmm. Stuff to think about there. 

The ending of the book is a bit strange; almost taking the form of an alternative storyline, parallelling the author Foe's desire to reshape Susan's actual narrative in order to sell books and escape from bankruptcy. It's basically a battle of authority over a narrative. The end section is so unlike the rest of the novel, it left me totally confused!

So, on first reading, it appears to me as a book addressing the art of novel-writing, whilst introducing political issues, such as slavery and the misery of oppression. It's a quick read, and a good little novel to append onto any reading of Defoe's classic masterpiece. But very, very different!