Disgrace

set against the turbulent backdrop of post-apartheid south africa , jm coetzee’s “disgrace” illustrates a morbidly accurate account of white intelligentsia and their far removed-ness from society. the main character, david lurie, is a middle-aged afrikaner and professor that is well past his prime. the scholar in him can’t help but wholeheartedly pedanticize his carnal desire as the embodiment of his humanity, making it all the more horrible that he rapes women under the impression of mutual benefit.

still, “disgrace” is an incredibly well-written novel that will make you suspicious of the motives of all the old, white professors at your liberal arts college.

4,5

Heavy, a bit too graphic for me but thought provoking. Coetzee gives a lot of insight into the post 1994 new South Africa and other topics like animal rights. Very well written.

завжди найбільше дратують книги, де немає жодних приємних хоча б в якій-небудь мірі персонажів. після ~року читання літератури написаної жінками, ця книга.. it’s just there i guess

Here's one of those really-good-yet-oh-my-god-so-intensely-miserable books. I can't give it five stars, you know? How can you give a book five stars when you just can't wait for it to be over so you can quit suffering? I'll start with the plot. An uninspired white college teacher in South Africa has a fling with a young black student in his class. They have sex several times, one of the times almost being rape on his part. Then, their relationship is uncovered and our protagonist has to go before a council of fellow teachers and defend his actions. He refuses to explain his actions other than by saying he was under the influence of Eros. When he refuses any kind of a real defense, he is forced to resign his position with the university. Then, he goes to stay with his daughter, who has a small farm and recently split up with her girlfriend. The bulk of the novel deals with how the two of them, as immigrants in the midst of a native culture they are segregated from, are treated by those around them. And, of course, how they respond to and change from this treatment. (I'm trying not to spoil anything for those of you who want to read it.) In the end, it's also about finding some sort of personal redemption in a time and place where honor and integrity are a memory...well, perhaps they still exist, but they are foreign and unknowable. This book is complex when it comes to the themes and the connections between storylines. It is about a lot of things: animal rights, the process of aging, death, globalization, and on and on and on. But, it is simultaneously a very easy, fast read. The protagonist is quite hateable, yet has enough personality that you can't help hoping his situation improves. And, the conclusion is a 'redemption,' in the Flannery O'Connor understanding of the word (if you haven't read the short story "A Good Man is Hard To Find," you should). The redemption is much more subtle, though, and quite a bit sadder. Unlike some reviewers on Goodreads, I felt the conclusion was appropriate and was as strong as it needed to be. All this is positive, and I have very little negative I can say about the quality of this book. BUT. I can piss and moan about the intense negativity underlying this. (BUT WAIT, you say, YOU'RE THAT JERK WHO TOLD ME TO READ BLOOD MERIDIAN, AND NOW I CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP AT NIGHT! WHO ARE YOU TO TALK ABOUT UNDERLYING NEGATIVITY? Well, it's a different kind of negativity. Let me 'splain.) *mild spoilers coming up* So, the white man and his daughter are in South Africa, totally cut off culturally from almost everyone around him. His daughter is being forced into what is almost a servant role to a black man who has in the past been her partner, and it is very clear that all of the white people on the land are there by the grace of those who truly have power. This is a parallel to the earlier situation at the university, where the teacher has control and takes advantage of this student in his class. Both the student who gets used, and the protagonist who has no real control of his situation, turn to creativity in order to find some sort of solace. Our protagonist seems to represent the anglo worldview that is slowly giving way to a world where occidental culture is just one of many cultures with power and influence. And this reminds me of an article I read recently, where the author seems mortified by the idea that the middle class is shifting, and that eventually the global middle class isn't going to be prominently caucasian. The reaction I had to this was basically, "So what?" Getting jaded about the falling dollar-value of whiteness seems a touch Archie Bunker. It could be that I'm simplifying what the author is trying to get across, especially since we're seeing through the eyes of such a bitter character. And, in a book with this much going on, perhaps I shouldn't make assumptions about Coatzee's message. But, it seems one of his themes is paranoia about the loss of cultural dominance. Another theme is redemption through art, but the particular artistic project our protagonist is wrapped up in sounds so immensely silly that I wonder if Coatzee is mocking the effort for a creative redemption. I finished the book feeling like our main character has lived an intensely useless life, is in a very sad and pathetic situation currently, and can't do anything better to turn things around than work on a project that nobody will care about, including perhaps himself. I mean, ACK! Really? Now, at any given time, I'm probably the cynic in the room. But this guy makes me feel like Richard Simmons. I want to give him a big hug and say, "The world is shitty, but it was ALWAYS shitty, so it doesn't really matter!" But, perhaps my reading of this book is so dark because I AM such a cynic. Maybe this book is an ink-blot test, and I'm projecting the things I hate about the protagonist over my reading of the entire book. Umm, yeah. This review feels like a trainwreck where the train cars just keep sliding and crashing into more and more things. But, I've been putting off reviewing this book for days because I didn't know how the fuck to review it. It made me angry, and I hated the characters, and I'm not sure I like the author, and I loved it. But I didn't enjoy it. And perhaps this review will leave you as disjointed as I felt after finishing the book.

This feels like a book I need to reread again to grasp more fully, but at the same time I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that. There are a lot of underlying, complex themes (I highly doubt I've gleaned most of them): set in post-aparthied South Africa, an obvious theme is the tensions and complex relationship (an individual relationship carrying the weight of the historical and social context, perhaps); the female body (and the male gaze); ageing; parental-child relationship; perhaps even challenging the idealised image of bucolic countryside we may have; what is fundamentally human, primal in fact? One thing I must say, though: Coetzee's writing is brilliant. Beautiful is less apt a description than controlled - the way he controls every sentence, every paragraph, each chapter, is incredible - and that makes it beautiful. He makes you see the word "disgrace" from multiple different angles, faintly reminding you of it, without it ever being repetitive. SPOILER AHEAD (not sure if this counts as spoilers since it happens near the start but well) It's particularly disturbing to begin with the protagonist (an old man, with a grown up daughter), lusting over and subsequently sleeping with his student. It's more disturbing when you realise how easily you enter his thoughts, his own justification (or no justification! For he is merely following desire. He has his own kind of morality, lyrical despite his claim to the contrary; for much of this book, he pursues his dream about writing an opera about Lord Byron, him and his mistress' love. Perhaps in this book, desire is on the other side of disgrace). The book starts with his regular sex routine with a prostitute - and the various women he sleeps with begin to parallel one another, but also prompt you to question how he reconciles that with his having a child, Lucy, also a woman. It is disturbing; but other than that you also get the sense of him being disturbed - by his surroundings, his ageing, the failure (or lack of fruition) of his hopes for his magnum opus, his alienation from this alien society, of the people who pass through this book and him.

A painful and powerful book dampened somewhat by a misogynistic hypocrite.

“So it has come, the day of testing. Without warning, without fanfare, it is here, and he is in the middle of it. In his chest his heart hammers so hard that it too, in its dumb way, must know. How will they stand up to the testing, he and his heart?” —— This is one of the most thought provoking books I’ve read in a while. Breathtaking. Raw. Shocking. Vulgar. It’s the mangled and bloody roadkill on the highway you have to look at in order to avoid. J. M. Coetzee earned his Booker Prize and Nobel Prize for Literature with this riveting novel. It’s complex, philosophical and a brilliant example of social commentary and historical fiction executed with depths of emotion.

Well written but the subject matter/characters are a big mess

This was a very interesting book. In the opening chapters, the main character is a professor double-divorcee who had his regular rendezvous with women of the profession. Then he happened upon an 18-year-old student that lead to an affair and his removal from a college. Standard stuff, I thought -- which lead me to wonder why this book won awards? But after he became the disgraced person, he went to live with his estranged daughter, who later became also disgraced. The story shows the main character going from disgraced to a person whom becomes aware of those around him, and some of those around him go from strong to weak (although if they tried harder, they wouldn't be), and from moderate to stronger in their own minds. Set in South Africa, it is a very interesting book I would recommend to anyone who wants something different.

Occasionally, I pick up a book on a whim, and it just grabs me by the collar and won’t let go. It is the same feeling you have when you hear a band whose music just works for you, making you feel excited about the medium as whole, let alone the song itself. A book with no wasted motion, where every page has a moment, a revelation, insight into the characters and the world they inhabit. ‘Disgrace’ was one of those books. Last weekend, I went to Nymans, a National Trust property that I particularly enjoy – mainly due to its second hand book shop. I shuffled around the garden, following my fiancé, until I was allowed a treasured five minutes in the shed that constitutes the premises in which the books are kept. There were a number of books I could have bought, but I settled on three. One was ‘Disgrace’ by J.M Coetzee, a book that I had nefariously acquired back in the days I thought that nefariously acquiring books was the way forward; a situation that I have long since moved past. I may have looked over the first page once, but as I would ‘find’ a lot of books, many books tended to just end up in the ether, had because I could rather than because I wanted them. The book was a 1999 Booker Prize winner. Whilst being an award winner in and of itself isn’t a guarantee of quality, I’d only ever read two other Booker Prize winners; ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel, which was a beautiful novel which engaged me from start to finish; and ‘A Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes, arguably my favourite book of all time. The pedigree thus far had always been more than impressive, so I was pretty hopeful. See the rest at: http://thatdifficultfirstnovel.co.uk/...

Not sure about a rating on this one... Part of me hated it part of me enjoyed it... Quite conflicted honestly.

I've read this one three times (twice for classes, once on my own) and each time I read it differently. I hated it the first time, and appreciated it the second. This last time I actually, maybe, kind of enjoyed it? Who am I becoming?

look this may be well written but I am tired to the bone of having to endure violent misogyny in the name of world literature

does not deserve a novel prize

Update: I hate this book so much I had to come back, and lower my star rating. Original Review: I read this for a class, and that is the only reason why I finished it. I can understand that it might have good insightful commentary, but I absolutely couldn't stand this book. I hated David, I didn't understand the other characters actions or motivations, and so many things in this book made me angry. Maybe being angry is the point of including those plot points. Either way I didn't like the book, I hated it. I'm giving it two stars instead of one because it inspires lively discussion. Topics on sexual assault, racism, apartheid, and religion can be found within the text. The writing was heavily turned inward on insights the main character makes about himself and the world. I'm sure there is some reason why this is a highly praised book, but it definitely is not for everyone.

Terrible, tristísimo. Necesario.

An excellent book. Exquisite craftsmanship. There are so many levels to this story, all of them tied together with profound insight and masterful allusion. However, this is not a light read. While the story itself is simple to follow, the story is devestating. My favorite aspect of the book is how well Coetzee portrays the racial tensions in South Africa. It's subtle yet fully realized. Coetzee knows how to write sentences that evoke so much emotion and energy. For my complete review, please visit my blog, The Mookse and the Gripes.

Very readable, even a page-turner in a way. Yet it is also a very agonizing, painful, frightening read. In every way this a novel about a disgraceful subject, about unspeakable things. This book confronts both the relationship between blacks and whites in post-Apartheid South-Africa as abuse of power and sexual violence. Very interesting is to observe how the balance between the powerful and powerless shifts. The eloquent way Coetzee describes all this is incredible and breathtaking, with a strong narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat. A sad, tough, disheartening book, yet also urgent and powerful.

[little bit of spoilers but not really tbh no worries you're not missing out] listen. i can find thought-provoking themes in this book. it's not badly written. there's a lot going on sub textually when it comes to culture and racism and misogyny. but i cannot get over the fact that this main character is one of the least sympathetic people ever. i'm not even trying to be dramatic but nothing he did or thought in this entire book made me like him even a teeny tiny bit. he was a creepy, 50-year-old rapist who got turned on by the fact that his student's hips were "narrow as those of a 12-year-old's" and literally said that he did not value women who did not try to look good for men. honestly go die in a fire. safe to say it did not make this a pleasant read. the most awful thing might be that this guy is a personification of probably a fuckload of real men walking around every day. i'm sort of curious what our lectures will have to say about it. i'm more than ready to go fume about it with my english lit group. bring it on.

I have no idea how to review this book. And I have no idea what to rate it. I hated it. And I would very much like to forget it. This book is despair. All synonyms of despair, hopelessness, helplessness, agony. Pain, frustration, irritation, the book will make you feel them all.

on the merits of a trusted friend, and in-part the nobel prize, and booker notice, I picked this up. for whatever reason i felt disconnected from all the characters, most, but not all, of the events and grew tired of every character speaking in the same formalistic, over tense, way. one might imagine to win the nobel for literature you would have to be able to imagine a world where every character does not sound like the lead character impersonating other characters, but this is obviously not the case. I enjoyed the first half of the book, on the whole. At the point of the "attack" the book looses its previously declared path and goes off randomly from there. if there was a message, a moral, or a thing to take away from this heavily awarded book it escaped me exactly what that might be.