Slow Man by J. M. Coetzee, a review from The New Republic by John Banville.
"What saves Slow Man from being a sterile, self-referential literary exercise is the vividness of the characters who animate it. Coetzee writes in a degree-zero style, purposely flat and unemphatic ? he must be a translator's dream ? yet in this book he has found a new access of warmth and humor, and displays a vivifying fondness for his characters. It is his triumph in Slow Man to bring a world into being with a minimum of literary effects." Read the entire New Republic review.