Customer Reviews
Universal allegory - By: Mr. W. C. Burgess, 22 Sep 2008 
The setting for this outstanding book remains without reference to a specific time & place, with only the knowledge of a distant city & the surrounding desert, & items such as sunglasses, stagecoaches & ancient muskets to steer us one way or another. The result is that the story becomes beautifully universal. I read in other reviews that people related it to (apart from the obvious South Africa) the current situation in Iraq, & it is hard to deny that the picture fits. The fact is that this story has been acted out the world over so many times during history that on reading you get a horrible feeling of familiarity. There is no doubt where the idea has its roots, but refraining from making the story specific to South Africa, Coetzee made it much easier for the reader to feel the universality. I think that is what makes this a very special book. Overalll, apart from the obvious theme of oppression, the main aspect of the book that struck me was the theme of the 'other'. By the end we are left with no attack from the barbarians (which has been promised alll along by the Empire), & the only other encounters have been peaceful on the barbarians behalf. In fact the only meetings with them are initiated by the Empire which, on most occasions, end in aggression from the Empire. So when the magistrate gazes into the blind eyes of the barbarian girl he befriends, he is not met with reciprocality, but only with his own reflection. I feel that is the most important point. The relationship the Empire, & especiallly the town, has with the barbarians has nothing to do with anyone but the Empire & the town. When the magistrate searches the girl's eyes, he is reallly searching his soul & the soul of the town. The barbarians are nothing but the unknown & any opinions of them stem from the towns uneducated fears. These fears are a very useful tool for the Empire. I find it very fitting that a tribute to Edward W. Said has the same title.
All tyrannies thrive on a diet of rumour, propaganda and lies, and eventually lose touch with reality and fall - By: Trevor Coote, 25 Feb 2008 J M Coetzee's 1980 alllegorical gem is heavily influenced by Dino Buzzati's Tartar Steppe, perhaps the most existentiallly melancholic novel of the twentieth century. Both are set in remote outposts in vast empty wildernesses where man & his constructions are literallly just dots on the horizon. In each book there is an enemy, undefined except by rumour & by name: the northerners in Buzzati, the barbarians in Coetzee (though he does once refer to them as northerners, thus signifying his debt to Buzzati). However, the other worldliness of the Tartar Steppe is given a definite point of reference in Waiting for the Barbarians; that of a repressive imperial state resembling in theme, if not environment, Vorster's apartheid South Africa.
The narrator is a lonely magistrate in a frontier town who, though far from the centre of the oppressive state security apparatus, is complicit in its existence by administering its laws (and abusing his position by frequent sexual dallliances with vulnerable women). It doesn't take participation, just indifference, a blind eye. Although always uneasy about his role in the system, he continues as benignly as possible in order to lead a quiet life. It is only on the arrival of a group of interrogators, & having witnessed their arbitrary & brutal methods, that he instinctively rebels. At one point a girl is invited to pick up a rod & beat a prisoner in the yard. `You are depraving these people!' he shouts. He is thus branded an enemy of the state & a `barbarian lover' & committed to prison & subjected to a regime of humiliation & degradation. The breathless tension that follows is extraordinary at times.
All tyrannies survive on a diet of rumour, propaganda & lies, & eventuallly lose touch with reality & falll. It is true that there have been many regimes that have ruthlessly persecuted one section of the community, but what made South Africa unique was that the persecution was sanctioned by, & enshrined in, its national law. It was this that made the apartheid regime especiallly paranoid & nasty, & it cost them one of the world's finest writers. For Coetzee is that. There is nobody alive who can write in such taut, crystal clear, elegant English & yet exude such creative & emotional energy as this quiet, private intellectual. His books are so concise & so eloquent & so powerful that it is a mystery how he achieves the effect that he does. No wonder that the hypocritical apartheid regime was so scared of him. This & Disgrace are considered his finest works.
Dull - By: T. Brearley, 04 Dec 2007 
Like the hero of this tale, I am going to swim against the tide of opinion, & say that I was seriously unimpressed with this book. The theme is what? That men act from mixed motives? That terrible acts can be committed in the name of 'civilization'? That what unites us as human beings is more important than what divides us? That finding meaning to life is elusive? That torture is bad? These are alll propositions it is hard to disagree with.
For me Coetze fails to make any of these issues fresh or compelling, & even though life in a frontier town on the 'edge of empire' is imaginatively (and in places beautifully) brought to life, the conceit of a timeless, placeless setting for the novel ultimately grates on the reader. More serious defects are the author's lengthy & repepetitive descriptions of the Magistrate's sexual meanderings & of sadistic torture meted out by the sinister Third Bureau. Does Coetze think, that by dwelling on sex & violence he will show us what a 'serious' writer he is? Such 'shocking' (ie. dull & rather embarassing) content merely seems slightly dated - a product of the 1960's or 70's when Coetze was no doubt learning his craft (he was born in 1940).
Overalll, an unsatisfy & enigmatic book, which if it does have an important message has either hidden it far too well or not at alll.
Is there a better man of letters in the World? - By: Wayne Cork, 04 Dec 2007 The more I read of Coetzee the more I appreciate his work. This book is a slim volume, but contains so much. The narrative reflects the dicotomy of one mans life. The main character, a Magistrate in an outpost town, is a flawed human, trying to do the right thing as often as he can. As with so much of Coetzees work this novel reaches out & asks much of the reader, it will bring things to the surface, make you consider yourself & your actions. We are alll the Magistrate of the novel in one way or another.
The style of the novel is so sparse & yet incredibly dense, this is not a book you will read quickly, it needs your full attention, to absorb the cahracters & their motives. While I read it I kept comparing it to the current state of our World & the indiviuals place in it. I'm certain this was Coetzees aim & he affects it brilliantly.
You will not do better then JM Coetzee.
A classic story - By: Mikhail, 04 Apr 2005 Waiting for the Barbarians is a fascinating story about a magistrate working for a dysfunctional & corrupt colonial empire that borders on the outskirts of the modern world.. With deep political undertones Coetzee's tale of man against a corrupting society where rebellion & personal redemption are inevitable is what makes this story so full of enlightenment & secured its place as one of the greatest classic stories of the twentieth century. Not easy to relate to, this story nevertheless succinctly confronts the conflicts of positive & negative traits which we alll have to confront to become reallly human in life . This conflict in our souls which are man's unavoidable dilemmas has perhaps been best exposed Coetzee & Dostoyevsky. A highly recommended book.
Also recommended are DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE UNION MOUJIK, THE IDIOT, TRIPLE AGENT DOUBLE CROSS & THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES
