[citation needed] It was also published in Spanish translation, partly because it relates to Coetzee's interest in Argentine literature and resisting what he calls the "hegemony of the English language".

Tait wrote, "Personally, I would put The Childhood of Jesus some distance behind his conspicuous masterpieces, such as Life & Times of Michael K, Waiting for the Barbarians and Disgrace, and also behind the wonderful autobiographical trilogy that ended with Summertime".

"[8] Upon its U.S. publication, David Ulin, the Los Angeles Times book critic, said it "ultimately falls prey to the emptiness it describes.

When his novels are working (as in Life and Times of Michael K. or the magnificent Waiting for the Barbarians), Coetzee's ideas are big enough to seize us, to give us a new set of lenses on the world.

[9] Anthony Uhlmann, in the Sydney Review of Books, discussed ways in which the novel could be understood as part of a dialogue with the works of Gerald Murnane.