---
product_id: 10524145
title: "Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life"
brand: "j. m. coetzee"
price: "$150027"
currency: COP
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.co/products/10524145-boyhood-scenes-from-provincial-life
store_origin: CO
region: Colombia
---

# Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life

**Brand:** j. m. coetzee
**Price:** $150027
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life by j. m. coetzee
- **How much does it cost?** $150027 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co](https://www.desertcart.co/products/10524145-boyhood-scenes-from-provincial-life)

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- j. m. coetzee enthusiasts

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## Description

Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life

## Images

![Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419FPmmLLIL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Elegant and insightful exploration of a boy’s mindset and extended family
  

*by E***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 31, 2015*

In the fascinating BOYHOOD, Coetzee examines the personality and emotional growth of a very able boy, always first in his class, from his tenth to his 13th year. This boy, the prince of the household, is both childishly dependent on his mother and resentful of that dependence. As a result, he sometimes heaps scorn on her. Meanwhile, he is disappointed with his weak father, who he views as second-rate. And this boy has fantasies of omnipotence, which emerge as he practices cricket alone or considers death, which, in his imagination, he transcends. The selfish and uncharitable perspective of this self-centered boy, who is also an outsider with odd affiliations, animates the people and stories that Coetzee presents in this novel.The question you’re probably asking right now is: Who would want to read a book that explores the point of view of such an unlikable character? Well, the answer is anyone who is interested in family dynamics and the foundations and development of character, since the reader finishes this book with a firm grasp of the protagonist’s personality and the ins-and-outs of his extended family. There is also much in this book about race relations in South Africa from 1950 to 1953. This is not Coetzee’s subject in this novel. But the issue is there and manifests in surprising nuggets of information. At the age of ten, for example, the protagonist says he has personally met only four natives.IMHO, there are three truly exceptional chapters in BOYHOOD. These are:o Chapter 13: Elderly Aunt Annie breaks her hip and the protagonist, with his mother, travels to the hospital. There he learns that the father of Aunt Annie, who is the sister of his mother’s mother, wrote a long and unreadable book about his youth in Germany and his divine visions. Aunt Annie had the book printed, which she was unable to sell. Scores of copies that the world does not want are in Aunt Annie’s storage.o Chapter 15: The protagonist considers his affinity for the English language, where “he feels at home.” Specifically, he considers: How did his mother, whose extended family tends to use the Afrikaans language, learn to write and speak impeccable English? And why did his father love Shakespeare and not slip back to an Afrikaans identity?o Chapter 18:  The protagonist’s father tries to reestablish his law practice. In doing so, he nearly ruins the family, which survives only because of his mother’s strength of character and the family resentments she harbors.There is, BTW, not even a single word in this pellucid novel (and probable quasi-autobiography) that is out of place. Highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Insightful but unsurprising
  

*by J***M on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 31, 2017*

Were you perhaps under the impression that JM Coetzee was once an innocent, wonder-filled little boy, marvelling at all the unexpected delights of Mother Earth? Read this book and disabuse yourself! At age seven, fictionalised Coetzee, but also, one cannot help but suspect, ‘the real’ Coetzee, was already viewing the world through a prism of outsider-ness, violence, sadism and, as a special bonus, a serious case of Oedipus complex.Which isn’t to say it’s not a very good book. Like grown-up Coetzee, little Coetzee dislikes everyone, especially himself, but this is better than self-pity, I suppose. He describes the racism, brutality and narrow-mindedness of rural Afrikaans South Africa with great accuracy (sadly, I am not sure much has changed since Boyhood’s 1940s - 1950s setting), but without stereotyping the Afrikaners. It is perhaps no wonder that a sensitive child, unable to grow accustomed to discrimination, the destructive caprices of adults and the violence of Apartheid South Africa, should form such a grim world view. There are some lovely passages on the narrator’s love of his uncle’s farm and the outdoors.I most appreciated the novel a portrait of a kind of vulnerability specific to sensitive and intelligent children. As is often the case with Coetzee’s books (for me), Boyhood is a ‘good’ book, but the narrator’s disgust for human failings depresses me. I am weak enough to prefer my realism tempered with some delusional compassion for my own and hopefully others’ weakness.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Didn't impress me.
  

*by H***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 5, 2013*

This is not a bad or poorly done book, but when an author lays too much mentality and premeditation into a kid's head I think he or she misses the point of childhood (in this case boyhood) by transferring the adult view into the child.

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*Product available on Desertcart Colombia*
*Store origin: CO*
*Last updated: 2026-02-20*