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"Slow Man" was the first. He pleads guilty to whatever charges lodged against him, but doesn't repent a la Meursault in "The Stranger." Consequently, he loses his job, packs up and heads to the countryside to live with his adult daughter who's living there with a female lover. It's also a fast read. "Disgrace" is the second novel I've read by South African writer J.M. I liked its length of slightly over 200 pages particularly satisfying. The affair is discovered and a hearing is convened to determine whether or not to remove him. So, if one's interested in reading a novel that poses difficult questions begin reading "Disgrace." The novel was also made into a movie last year starring John Malkovich--now there's somebody who enunciates.
It concerns David Lurie, a communications professor in Cape Town who has a perfunctory affair with one of his students. "Disgrace" is certainly a novel of great distinction winning the Booker Prize in 1999. I leave it up to the reader to discover what happens. David, a mid-50s divorced man still fancies himself as a ladies man despite emerging physical evidence that hints otherwise. There the protagonist finds trouble and the novel pivots in a controversial direction that has garnered the author some criticism.
Coetzee. Lucy, his daughter, runs a kennel and owns a farm selling vegetables to make a living. If she already has a partner to share it with then she should try sharing it as widely as possible. The novel takes place in post-apartheid South Africa. He's a narcissist and infected by the arrogant belief that a woman's beauty isn't hers alone, but must be shared with others.
We're to believe that Lucy after being gang-raped, would continue to live on her farm, even though she acknowledges that in so doing, she is likely to be attacked again.The lectures on English literature made the novel even harder to bear.I find it a Disgrace that such a novel wins the Booker Prize, when other greater novels such as Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" or perhaps Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" do not. Perhaps this is not considered one of his better works, but based on other reviews, I see that inexplicably, some people actually liked this book.The characters were not only dislikeable, but completely unrealistic. Remarkable.Remarkable that this book won a Booker Prize. I've been meaning to read Coetzee for some time, after seeing the prizes he's won, and had high expectations.
It is difficult to give up something or someone that your love, but true love is letting go at times. This is a mix of aging, culture, and inner struggle between subjective and objective feelings. This is a very interesting account of a man's trials in life. It takes place in South Africa.
It was a sad and horrifying book, and still very interesting. I think more than anything what really took me by surprise was the abundance of sex and violence. Not to mention all of the poor dogs. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. It made me more curious about South Africa as a setting, too. The narrator, however, was not terribly likable. For a very short novel (not even 250 pages long), it was surprisingly powerful. but not completely hate-able either.
Not even his daughter. The sorrow in this book comes from knowing that no matter what happens, and no matter how Lurie changes in other aspects of his life, he will never relate to woman as anything other than what he expects them to be.After being forced to resign, Lurie moves in with his daughter, and does volunteer work for a woman who puts down unwanted dogs. David Lurie, a middle-aged mediocre professor has a mostly one-sided affair that cost him his teaching post. Despite a horrific attack that happened to him and his daughter, he cannot speak to her in a way that either makes her open up to him, or shows that he understands anything she says. As you see him changing his perspective on animals and how they are treated, there is hope for him, but your hopes will be dashed.This is a well written book but it is ultimately unsatisfying because of all the opportunities for growth that are unrealized. Lurie relates to women thru his loins. He has no other way of connecting to them.
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