Third reading. As I’ve previously mentioned, the word barbarian comes up dozens of times in this novel. The implication as we watch the commandant slowly becoming more and more disillusioned with his position, with his empire, and with himself, is that he is becoming more and more a barbarian. This is not to say that he’s becoming more savage, but that he is becoming less and less an insider and more and more an outsider. It’s important to remember that barbarian is a word assigned […]
Waiting for the Barbarians
Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coetzee