“Coetzee’s writing is characteristically spare and penetrating….Kurtz proves both a lucid expositor and an evocative literary stylist, bringing psychoanalytic ideas and practices to life with rare precision and immediacy.” —Literary Review
“It is the Man Booker Prize-winning novelist’s agenda that drives the absorbing discussions of this book. Kurtz’s pieces are replies to Coetzee’s questions, and as such are insightful for both disciplines.” —The Independent (UK)
“For any admirer of Coetzee, the collection is a rare opportunity to understand the mind of a writer who almost never speaks at length in his own voice…Kurtz, importantly, is prepared to firmly critique Coetzee…The pleasures of this book lie in the ways they absorb one another’s critiques, adjust their claims, and—sometimes—exchange positions.”—The New Republic
“Coetzee and Kurtz range freely across space and time, from ancient spells of bewitchment to the ‘confessions’ of celebrities in magazines. Their arguments have a meditative quality, challenging, and helpfully open-ended.” —Newsweek Europe
“The book is rich throughout with references to literature and philosophy… But it is Coetzee’s gift for bottling the essence of his own life which makes for his most potent observations.”—Financial Times
From the Hardcover edition.
