What is the author's style in Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee?

The distinct and beautiful prose is a direct result of the narrator and her previous profession. Mrs. Curren is a retired professor of the humanities. While she can communicate in the everyday language of the modern day, she is most comfortable thinking and writing in the best of many languages. Her brilliant mind sees not just an object as it is in the present but how it relates to the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, and other societies throughout history. Her thoughts are not shackled to the present but stretch through time to an array of past cultures and civilizations.