FROM THE DRAWER: A COETZEE DRAFT

Too long, too diffuse

The author in youth.

Here is a draft of a piece I wrote for Harper’s Magazine in 2020 about J.M. Coetzee. The published version is here. This version is longer and more windingly biographical. The edited version is superior and more focused on the Jesus Trilogy, but I had fun writing too long on this one. It was the beginning of the plague. I took my time. I have a piece on Christopher Hitchens in the August issue of Harper’s. The version below is not edited, copy edited, or fact-checked, but I tried to be conscientious while drafting it. Coetzee has written a new text and he is interviewed about it here.