Brilliant Author Tip: Layers of meaning

“Waiting For the Barbarians” — J. M. Coetzee

Layers of characterization and perception, symbolism and setting, narrative point of view.

“So I continue to swoop and circle around the irreducible figure of the girl, casting one net of meaning after another over her. She leans on her two sticks looking dimly upward. What does she see? The protecting wings of a guardian albatross or the black shape of a coward crow afraid to strike while its prey yet breathes?”