waiting for the barbarians
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Waiting for the Barbarians
It is refreshingly disturbing to read J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians. It is the story of a man from a South African frontier settlement who witnesses the horrible acts of cruelty of Colonel Joll, a man determined to find enemies of the Empire in the land that surrounds them. The Magistrate looks the other way while Colonel Joll questions prisoners, assuming that acts of the Empire, while excessive in force, are necessary for the security of the people. When the Colonel fills the settlement compound with prisoners, the Magistrate finds it difficult to hold his tongue. He unwittingly reveals his honest opinion to the Colonel. However, it is not this insubordination that leads to his political demise, but his sincere relationship with a barbarian girl that causes him to become the new focus of the Empire's suspicion
After prisoners are released, a barbarian girl is left behind, begging in the streets, partially blinded and crippled from torture. The Magistrate becomes her friend and invites her to sleep in his room. The relationship, however, is not based on sexuality but one of a deeper emotional need...