The Life and Times of Michael K - J.M. Coetzee

Kafka rewrites The Grapes of Wrath, with all the hilarious hijinks that summary would suggest.

This tale of an inarticulate gardener struggling to survive in war-torn South Africa is grim stuff, then, but Coetzee will always give you crystalline prose and moral insight that helps balance out the overall mood of despair.

This is the second consecutive book I have read where the protagonist loses his sexual innocence in a dispiriting encounter with a lady of negotiable affection featuring hand and mouth based activities but no climax. Makes you wonder why people bother.