Athena K's Review - Disgrace

Forgive my back-to-back posting.  I caught up on reading this weekend when I ran up against my library book due dates. Apparently I'm not allowed to renew when other people have placed a hold on the book!

While excellently written, and clearly qualifying for its Booker prize, J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace is not a book I will be revisiting anytime soon.  Certainly worth reading - but only once.

Getting older really sucks.  And it especially sucks for the main character of Disgrace, 52-year old white elitist David Lurie living in Cape Town, South Africa.  An entirely unsympathetic man, Lurie experiences or causes almost every definition of the word Disgrace I can think of.  Beginning with rejection by his regular prostitute, Lurie suffers career termination, inquisition, sexual scandal, physical abuse, imprisonment, the rape of his daughter, home invasion and theft, rejection by family, ridicule and ultimately winds up with a long term position assisting in the euthanasia and disposal of unwanted dogs.  Pretty Heavy Stuff.  And I'm sure that if I had the perspective of approaching old age and a better understanding of post-apartheid race relations in South Africa it would only add to amy understanding of the many ways in which disgrace is possible and experienced in this book.

It is no accident that an overwhelming amount of the disgrace in this novel arises from interracial interactions, with the whites suffering disgrace  at the hands of  non-whites.  There is some poetic justice here, but I don't understand enough of the context to grasp more than that.  South African readers... help?

His disgrace also stems frequently from a narrow view of women and gender relations.  His sexual needs are  placed above the needs and desires of others, and the words he uses to describe the women in his life - including his own daughter - reveal him to be fundamentally misogynistic.  He reasons with Melanie that she "ought" to sleep with him: "Because a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone.  It is part of the bounty she brings into the world.  She has a duty to share it."

He is unrepentant and unapologetic even after he is adjudicated and dismissed for his actions, which makes him even more distasteful.  The flames of passion he describes led to him being literally lit on fire.  His only repentance seems to come through writing his opera about Byron and his Italian mistress - an opera with no artistry and for which there will never be an audience.  And in the end he has fallen so far that he compares his workwith the dogs to that of a harijan - an Untouchable of the Indian caste society.  And it is very hard to feel pity for him, or to feel that he has not invited this fate. 

Marie's review- Disgrace

Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee. Published 1999 by Penguin. Paperback.

Winner of the 1999 Man Booker Prize, Disgrace is a stunner of a novel. It's the second Booker Prize winner by South African author J.M. Coetzee (the first was Life and Times of Michael K, a winner in 1983) and almost as soon as I started it I could see why it won. It's one of the those novels that really has it all- a strong plot, great characters, distinctive style and strong setting. The plot? David Lurie, a Cape Town college professor, ruins his life after an ambiguous affair with a student, then goes to live with his daughter Lucy, a homesteader in rural South Africa. There, they endure an unspeakable tragedy. The rest of the novel is fallout from these two life-changing events.

Also omnipresent in the book are the racial and sexual politics of South Africa as the characters wrestle with guilt and the consequences in this landscape of living the lives they want for themselves. If you read Solar and thought Michael Beard was an unappealing character, you're going to hate David Lurie, a stubborn, difficult man bitter about his diminishing prospects with career and women who refuses to see the reality of every situation he's in. At the same time, though, Coetzee makes the reader care about him first by punishing him and then by showing his slow crawl back to humanity via the growing compassion that builds through his work in a veterinary hospital.

Gender, sexuality and race are but a few of the themes running through this dense, economically written novel. Coetzee races through the affair and Lurie's downfall then lingers over Lurie's new life with Lucy and its brutal fallout. His recreation of life on Lucy's farm was so vivid I felt like I was there; Lurie's ostracism from his academic life is equally vivid and moving. Lucy and Lurie are both unforgettable characters, so entrenched in their points of view and so unwilling to see any but their own way out of their predicaments. I read the book in about two days and couldn't put it down once I started. For the reader of literary fiction who can like an unlikeable protagonist, Disgrace is a must-read. I received the book in a Bookmooch trade and it came with a sticky note on the title page that read "Phenomenal piece of literature. You will not be disappointed!" I couldn't agree more.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.

You can see this review at my blog here.

Laura's Review - Disgrace

Disgrace
J.M. Coetzee
220 pages

David Lurie is a 50-something university professor, twice divorced. He's not particularly skilled at relationships. Perhaps he doesn't even understand what a relationship truly is, since early on he assumes that weekly encounters with a prostitute constitute some kind of more permanent bond. When the prostitute leaves town, David finds himself without female companionship and makes the even more egregious error of striking up an affair with a student. Of course this is discovered, and David leaves the university in disgrace. He visits his adult daughter Lucy, who runs a small farm and dog kennel in a rough and sometimes dangerous part of rural South Africa. At first it seems David will ease into the slower pace of country life, come to terms with the wrong he has done to others, and potentially make peace. But Coetzee has other plans, and visits upon David and Lucy an horrific act of violence resulting in even more disgrace, this time affecting both of them. Their emotional recovery -- individually and collectively -- is at the center of this novel.

David is not a particularly likable character. He is so interpersonally inept that he nearly always makes the wrong choice. I didn't really care whether he recovered from his ordeal; in many cases he got what he deserved. Lucy, on the other hand, was a more sympathetic figure. A lesbian abandoned by her partner just before David's arrival, she is fiercely independent. She is committed to making her farm successful, despite the danger of being a woman alone in that part of the country. She resists David's attempt to protect her (a natural response for a father, but still unwelcome). And yet despite her independence and strong will, when faced with a situation requiring legal action, she prefers to give in and try to make peace herself. She succeeds to some degree, but with tremendous personal sacrifice.

Disgrace raised up many ethical and moral issues, prompting me to consider how I might handle similar situations. Interesting reading. ( )

My original review can be found here.

J.M. Coetzee: Disgrace

A booker prize winner written in the third person - they do exist!!

This little book is about a 52 year old divorced university lecturer (David) whose philandering ways and skewered principles lose him his job, so he visits his daughter on her smallholding, where something nasty happens.

I had mixed feelings about this book.I did not like David at all. He stalks one women when she stops sleeping with him for money, and preys sexually on a vulnerable student who does not seem to want his attentions. He probably rapes this student, several times, but the narrative has been written from his viewpoint, and his viewpoint is that she is a partner in their relationship, even though she hides herself from him, avoiding classes and shrinks from him when he is near her. David is also far too self obsessed - he rolls his thoughts around, studying them from all directions. I wanted to slap him, and was quite happy to read about all the difficult things that happen to him. After all, they don't seem to move him much, so why should they move me?

I had a lot more sympathy for his daughter, though I thought her mad to stay on her land after the attack and wait for the same thing to happen again. I have a female friend who lives in Port Elizabeth on a dairy farm, and so my feelings about that were quite strong.

So, I was reading about someone I did not like, and unpleasant events. Why then did I end the book with grudging admiration for the writer?

Perhaps because the book had the ring of honesty about it. The story does not come to any tidy conclusion, events are related by our unreliable narrator, there is the ordinary human mix of the scary, the mundane, and the totally unexpected, and we are left to make of them what we will. Has David been redeemed by the events that have happened? I don't know. If David was real, and the events real, I would say "Time will tell". As it is I was left considering the many possibilities. And I enjoyed that.

Introduction Redheadrambles

Hi, I am new to the world of blogging and have just started my own book blog called Redheadrambles - it is turning out to be quite fun.  I started out with the idea of blogging about the latest book I was reading but this quickly led me to a discovery of "Book Challenges". So here I am - ready to read more Booker Prize winners...(although I think the short-listed books can sometimes be more rewarding). To date I have read 9 / 41 prize winners with my favorites so far being  The Remains of the Day and The life of Pi. Of the shortlisted books I have read 20, standouts include Cloudatlas and recently Mr Pip. 

My intention at the moment is to read the books nominated for the "Best of the Bookers". To this end I have reviewed The Ghost Road and Disgrace. 

Looking forward to the challenge !

Regards

RedHead

"Best of the Booker" Shortlist Announced

As first posted here in February, the Man Booker Prize for fiction will present a special award to celebrate the prize's 40th anniversary this year. The "Best of the Booker" will honor the best overall novel to have won the prize since its inception in 1969. A similar award was created to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the prize; Salman Rushdie won the "Booker of Bookers" for his 1981 winner, Midnight's Children.

The judges have just selected the shortlist:

• 1973 - The Siege of Krishnapur (Farrell)
• 1974 - The Conservationist (Gordimer)
• 1981 - Midnight's Children (Rushdie)
• 1988 - Oscar and Lucinda (Carey)
• 1995 - The Ghost Road (Barker)
• 1999 - Disgrace (Coetzee)

A full report from The Guardian can be found here. In the opinion of their critics, Rushdie is believed to be a favorite to win this award as well. However, the decision is in the hands of the public who have an opportunity to vote on their favorite from this list. The press release on the Booker Prize website includes voting instructions.

Let the voting begin! Which one of these is your favorite?

Trevor's Review of Coetzee's Disgrace

This book was a quick read--not necessarily because it is short but because it is one that must be read. David Lurie is a character to be despised, at least, that's what I wanted to do. I couldn't fully despise the man though. Somehow, I could not help but pity him and see underneath the cold, selfish skin a real human being.

The novel opens up when Lurie's prostitute stops meeting with him. He's seen her outside of the hotel room where until now they've had a great relationship. She cannot deal with the fact that she's been seen by a client in her daily life, so she drops him. He finds solace by seducing one of his students. She is captured. He won't let her go, even though he sees that she is crushed with her guilt and her desire. Eventually he is exiled from his community, mostly by choice because he will not go along with the type of apology that was demanded of him. He goes to live with his daughter, who herself has a troubled past. In a sense, this is where the book begins. And there is more disgrace to come.

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. I admit that I have not fully informed myself of the criticism this book takes from those who purport to know more about South Africa and race relationships. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if I knew more, but as I stand now, I highly recommend it both for its stylistic, stark beauty and for its substance.
4 stars out of 5.

Disgrace - Wendy's Book Review

He stood a stranger in this breathing world,
An erring spirit from another hurled;
A thing of dark imaginings, that shaped
By choice the perils he by chance escaped.
-A line from Byron's poem 'Lara'-

J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace explores the ideas of race, gender and generational differences. In simple, yet powerful prose, Coetzee develops his main character - a professor of communications named David Lurie - amid the social and political complexities of South Africa.

David Lurie is a middle aged man of questionable morality, whose passions lie with young women...girls, really. When he begins an affair with one of his students - the beautiful Melanie - David finds himself on the other side of a sexual harassment investigation. He retreats to his daughter Lucy's farm in the country where terror and unexpected violence unfold.

Throughout the novel, Coetzee intersperses the poetry of Byron, and the tangled life of this poet as he pursues a girl much younger than himself. David Lurie's desire to write an opera about Byron and his lover is largely symbolic of David's own struggle within himself.

Although he devotes hours of each day to his new discipline, he finds its first premise, as enunciated in the Communications 101 handbook, preposterous: 'Human society has created language in order that we may communicate our thoughts, feelings and intentions to each other.' His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origins of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul. - From Disgrace, page 4 -

In fact, the novel's largest theme seems to be about the confusing nature of language - filled with misunderstanding, second meaning, and the breakdown of communication - specifically that between the sexes, the generations, and the races. It is clear throughout the book that David's perceptions, as a man, are different from Lucy's (or Melanie's) female perceptions; and that David's understanding of African culture as a white man, are different from the black Petrus (who lives on Lucy's land). David's struggles to communicate and connect with his daughter are fraught with misunderstanding.

Coetzee won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003 - and it is easy to see why after reading Disgrace. His style is spare and shocking, and the novel is not one that a reader can put down and forget.

Highly recommended; rated 4.5/5.

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

"For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well," opens Coetzee's slim, coolly-narrated novel of a middle-aged, divorced professor at a South Africa university named David Lurie who has, in fact, not solved the problem of sex very well at all. Regular appointments with a prostitute eventually don't suffice to quell his fears of aging, and so he seduces a young student in his class named Melanie, not even realizing how close he comes to destroying the girl. When the affair comes out and David refuses to apologize, he's fired.

From there what has been a claustrophobic, evenly-paced story of academic sterility expands messily outwards...

(Read the rest of the review at my blog)