John Maxwell Coetzee's 1990 novel Age of Iron is at once intimate and sprawling. It heart-wrenchingly evokes the oppressive conditions of apartheid in South Africa through the eyes of an elderly white woman grappling in equal measure with her impending death, the shame of inaction, and the legacy she is leaving behind for her daughter. It is an expressive work that both condemns and humanizes complacency, forcing the reader to come to terms with their own shortcomings in a world fraught with suffering.
The novel is about several things. It is about Mrs. Curren figuring out how she can make the end of her life mean something. It is about an unlikely relationship between Mrs. Curren and...
