Brave response by ‘artistic thief’

Characters from literary fiction can change the world of those who read their stories – and that is what has happened to J M Coetzee’s Michael K.

In this response to Coetzee’s classic masterpiece, Life & Times of Michael K, Limpopo author Nthikeng Mohlele has written Michael K, published last month by Pan Macmillan.

Mohlele says he hopes to contribute something more than a sequel as he attempts to unpack “the dazed and disconnected world” of the title character, his solitary ways and his inventiveness.

“Michael K is a novel with strong poetry motifs – the poetry of Derek Walcott and Pablo Neruda is touched on,” Mohlele says.

It also indirectly references other Coetzee novels such as The Master of Petersburg, Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace.

“It was never my intention to focus exhaustively on the other Coetzee novels – but I did so to build a world around my primary text of focus.”
He also is acutely aware of the literary risks.

“Which writer, in their right mind, would want to go down in cultural history as the dumb and overambitious bum who ruined J M Coetzee’s masterpiece?

“I have stated in the book, tongue-in-cheek, that I hope to have been a decent artistic thief, by which I mean there remains a moral and artistic obligation on anyone who attempts or succeeds in reworking another’s work, to treat such work with respect.”

Writing demanded a wide scope of reading and reflection, said the award-winning author of Pleasure, citing some of his favourites which included famous, obscure, unknown and imperfect ones.

“I could just have easily reworked something by Javier Marías, James Baldwin, Mandla Langa, Wole Soyinka, Jhumpa Lahiri, Saul Bellow, Mariama Bâ or Dambudzo Marechera.”

•  Michael K is published by Pan Macmillan and retails for around R220.