Well then...

So far, I have been impressed with Waiting for the Barbarians for two reasons. The first of which is that I have truly enjoyed reading it, which I rarely experience when dealing with award winning novels. The second reason is that the narrator retains a great amount of dignity in the eyes of the reader despite his odd sexual pondering(s). Perhaps the dignity the character holds is due to his contrast with the colonel, or perhaps it is due to his position in the outpost as the magistrate. I personally believe his dignity is due to the gentle soul the narrator is shown to have.

His constant sexual judgments and conclusions come off as very human, and strangely not eccentric. Instead, I am left reading thoughts that could be anyone's. Well, maybe that is an extreme. Hence, we have arrived at perhaps the most interesting part of WFTB so far, the lack of historical detail. With no frame of reference, the beginning of the story was almost grinding to me, but Coetzee hooked me in with the narrator's thought process. The way he analyzes Joll's actions strikes me as such perfect examples of legitimate human behavior that it is difficult not to be sucked into the story.

The barbarian women he keeps with him is submissive, while not being submissive at all. The scene toward the end of the second section, the second of her sexual advances, is natural while being awkward. And that is essentially the beauty of Coetzee's writing: his ability to gently draw contradictions in actions and circumstances without overtly writing about internally conflicted characters, instead making them seem commonplace and average.

Perhaps that wasn't phrased too well, but I think you get what I'm sayin. No? Well, luckily we've only begun to discuss.

Peace