Youth

A novel of J. M. Coetzee, author of Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K and Disgrace. Youth is his fictionalized memoirs. "A young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity"—from back cover description

I read it because it was in London. Simple. Unlike exciting Waiting for the Barbarians which is full of complicity, Youth was succinct and restrained. I like it because of its unflinching honesty. You see a young man from Cape Town yearns to meet a girl and dreams to be a poet. Nonetheless, his real life was only working reluctantly and feeling uninvited in London, say, misery. Coetzee's acute description and beautiful words made the adolescent's dull life exhilarating. It also reflects part of my self-interrogating. Do I really know how to make my work meaningful before devote my life to science? I hope I will figure it out soon or merely hope there will be less frustration laid in the near future.