Coetzee's novel is a rewriting of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. In Coetzee's novel, it isn't just Cruso (yes, without the "e") and Friday stranded on a deserted island. There's a lady there, too. Her name's Susan Barton. Coetzee's story goes like this: Susan Barton is rescued, and goes back to England, where she tries to get Foe (Daniel Defoe, anyone?), to write the story of the island from her perspective.

"The story I desire to be known by is the story of the island. You call it an episode, but I call it a story in its own right. It commences with my being cast away there and concludes with the death of Cruso and the return of Friday and myself to England, full of new hope. Within this larger story are inset the stories of how I came to be marooned (told by myself to Cruso) and of Cruso's shipwreck and early years on the island (told by Cruso to myself), as well as the story of Friday which is properly not a story but a puzzle or hole in the narrative, (I picture it as a buttonhole, carefully cross-stitched around, but empty, waiting for the button)." (p. 121)

Coetzee's novel is all about metanarrative. That's played out in the conflict between Susan Barton and Foe, who is constantly trying to write a different story from the one Susan Barton wants him to write. In the passage above, Susan's really spelling it out for Foe. Why do you think he has such trouble understanding her point of view?

The word "story" is used six times in this little paragraph alone. That's not even counting words like "episode" and "narrative." Can you guess what Coetzee is getting at here? He's telling us: "Think about stories. Stories, people." How many stories are embedded in this novel? Are some of these stories better than others? More true?