Disgrace by JM Coetzee
I must say my first and foremost motivation to read the book was to read Booker’s prize book by a Nobel Laureate, that’s only 220 pages. However, all plans fell flat, as the book will probably stick with me for long and not necessarily in a feel-good way.
First things first: This is a very grown-up book, so pick it up only if you are ready for a grown-up conversation. But, at the same time, it isn't a hopeless one – it expresses confusion, anger, and sometimes despair, but also a certain sense of searching that at least imagines a different future.
The word Disgrace is what struck me with nearly every page. Coetzee’s writing is like that. Tight. There’s no escaping what he wants you to see. It’s not outrageously blatant, but it’s none too subtle either.
Main character Lurie, has a sharp intelligence, but too little empathy.
My favorite passage from the book that describes him:
At 52, twice divorced, David is solitary, resigned, erudite and sarcastic. He does not care for the disinterest of his students show his poetry classes.
“He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn nothing.”
Few points about the writing itself :
> Coetzee writes in the third person and refers to all characters, even in passing, by their first names.
> I couldn’t really understand Lucy – I felt sympathy for her but her actions troubled me and left me feeling a bit hopeless
> Found the book a bit politically motivated too...later on Wikipedia search it showed that author has been arrested for his political leanings in the US when he was teaching at Buffalo, New York.
> The pace of the book helped in completing it
>The pathos this book is able to create is something which makes it a great read.
Overall, its a book about fall from grace, for an ageing professor, for a society in South Africa post Apartheid where white women are targeted, about animals who are killed and then we are forced to ask ourselves are we better than these animals?
There are many animals in this book. The way people talk about animals sounds a lot like the way that white South Africans once talked openly about black South Africans. ‘By all means, let us be kind to them,’ Lurie comments. ‘But let us not lose perspective. We are of a different order of creation from the animals. Not higher, necessarily, but different.’
Perhaps, as one of the characters thinks, it is necessary, in order to build something up, for everything to be first brought down to nothing. For that, you need Disgrace.
Read in July 2018
First things first: This is a very grown-up book, so pick it up only if you are ready for a grown-up conversation. But, at the same time, it isn't a hopeless one – it expresses confusion, anger, and sometimes despair, but also a certain sense of searching that at least imagines a different future.
The word Disgrace is what struck me with nearly every page. Coetzee’s writing is like that. Tight. There’s no escaping what he wants you to see. It’s not outrageously blatant, but it’s none too subtle either.
Main character Lurie, has a sharp intelligence, but too little empathy.
My favorite passage from the book that describes him:
At 52, twice divorced, David is solitary, resigned, erudite and sarcastic. He does not care for the disinterest of his students show his poetry classes.
“He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn nothing.”
Few points about the writing itself :
> Coetzee writes in the third person and refers to all characters, even in passing, by their first names.
> I couldn’t really understand Lucy – I felt sympathy for her but her actions troubled me and left me feeling a bit hopeless
> Found the book a bit politically motivated too...later on Wikipedia search it showed that author has been arrested for his political leanings in the US when he was teaching at Buffalo, New York.
> The pace of the book helped in completing it
>The pathos this book is able to create is something which makes it a great read.
Overall, its a book about fall from grace, for an ageing professor, for a society in South Africa post Apartheid where white women are targeted, about animals who are killed and then we are forced to ask ourselves are we better than these animals?
There are many animals in this book. The way people talk about animals sounds a lot like the way that white South Africans once talked openly about black South Africans. ‘By all means, let us be kind to them,’ Lurie comments. ‘But let us not lose perspective. We are of a different order of creation from the animals. Not higher, necessarily, but different.’
Perhaps, as one of the characters thinks, it is necessary, in order to build something up, for everything to be first brought down to nothing. For that, you need Disgrace.
Read in July 2018
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