2010

has been a pretty fucked up year so far.

possibly the only positively interesting thing thus far was meeting the author J.M. Coetzee on a ferry trip to Lamma Island in Hong Kong.

(before knowing who he was)
me: I've read that book - nodding towards the novel next to him, Boyhood - A Memoir

him: I'm impressed. what do you think of it.

me: I find it dark and morbid.

him: I'm the author. (and made an action of jumping out of the ferry)

me: are you sure? I dun believe.
.

In the end I still wasn't quite sure if it was really him, although he told me about a new book that he's writing and showed me the manuscript. it's about a girl who fell asleep on a train and woke up to find no one on board and yet the train was still moving. the essence was of the girl reliving her childhood dreams/memories in present moment.

that's as far as i got, before the ferry reaches Lamma Island and we took a snapshot together before parting way.

the thing that bugged me was that i didn't tell him how much i like his works, even the dark and morbid ones, like Boyhood, Duskland, the Barbarian something and The Life and Times of Michael K which i have quoted before in this blog before. and i rate him so much higher than Paulo Coelho, the reason of his mention is because their books are always placed side by side on the bookshelves.

Another day, another trip, perhaps.