Elizabeth Costello is that rare kind of a story which leaves a reader with an uneasy feeling and a large number of different questions. Why is it so? It could be explained with a fact that Elizabeth Costello – in spite of the fact that she is a gifted writer – is a usual person. She is not ideal. Who would dare to say that she is a flawless person if she used to lock herself in a room to work in order to prevent her children from disturbing her? She is absolutely okay with them crying. It doesn’t bother her, for her emotions and her work are a little bit more important than tears of her children. However, she is not a monster. Her characters is so appealing, because she makes mistakes, sticks to what she considers to be right and doesn’t stop asking questions.
It is easy to believe in an idea that Coetzee himself and Elizabeth Costello are alike in many respects. Both of them live in Australia, although Coetzee is an immigrant. They write novels and both are renowned writers. They are vegetarians and speak against cruel animal husbandry. Of course, even these similarities don’t give us a right to claim that Elizabeth Costello is Coetzee’s reflection, but it wouldn’t be a mistake to assume that some fears, interests and disappointments of the author are depicted in this novel.
Elizabeth Costello is faithful to realism. She doesn’t want to change the reality in order to please her readers or audience. If something is horrible, she is going to characterize it as something horrible and a price she pays is rather high. Every time she speaks against meat-eating or immerses in philosophical reasoning she loses public’s interest.
Besides timeless questions and contemporary problems, this novel shows how it is to be a child of a famous artist. One would say that he/she is unbelievably lucky, for he/she gets more chances if not to succeed in a life than to have a more interesting life. No one talks about difficulties this person might face. First of all, writers and other artists spend a lot of time thinking, existing in their own world of fantasies and ideas or working on something new without days off. It is not like other parents don’t do that. Indeed, they do, but they have more defined schedule. Elizabeth is a bad mother, for her children don’t get as much attention as her work and books does. This is also a price she pays for her fame.
The very last question this novel raises is who a writer really is. Is he/she a secretary, who notices everything and then depicts it in his/her works or a person who creates his/her own reality and writes about things he/she believes in? Coetzee doesn’t give an exact answer. Elizabeth belongs to the first type and so do many others, for this is nature of realism. It is their position and no one could judge them for it.
