Why be so hard on a distinguished writer?

WHEN JM Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, the citation from the Academy read: “He is a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalisation and cosmetic morality of western society”.

Listening to him reading from unpublished work at Listowel Writers’ Week, I was exhilarated by the brilliance of his prose style and analytical mastery.

How then could Alan O’Riordan (Irish Examiner, June 6) have written so scathingly of him? Having engaged his audience for an hour while reading from his work, Mr Coetzee took questions from the floor.