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Mar 13, 2009

J rated it:

This book made me want to read Twilight. Yes, Twilight: perfectly perfect young people falling in love and never growing old. God, I hope that’s what’s in store for me there. I need an antidote to Disgrace.
It affected me more than I thought it could, in ways I hadn’t imagined possible. At page ten I would have readily given it five stars; the writing is superb. Halfway through I’d have given it four. Excellent, but slightly annoying. At the moment I finished it, shouting “WHAT?? What More...

26 comments like (56 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

Kim rated it:

There should be one of those button options on GR that states this review has been hidden due to hormonal, maybe not so justified, incoherent rants… click here to view

Because that’s what you’re about to get.

David Lurie is a playah. In the full urban dictionary sense of the word.

A male who is skilled at manipulating ("playing") others, and especially at seducing women by pretending to care about them, when in reality they are only interested in More...

36 comments like (33 people liked it)

May 06, 2010

Ben rated it:

This could have been the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt while reading a novel. The issues and themes addressed are those that are immersed in the sensitive, pitch-black parts of my insides. And it didn’t relent; not once did it get easier. It was painful to keep going, yet I was gripped and couldn’t stop.

Mining through our darker spirits is not pleasurable. Looking at the world and its sickness, and feeling some of its constant, inherent pain is no easier. But when these merg More...

21 comments like (41 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Jason rated it:

I’ve read scores of reviews of this book by women, and I’m still dissatisfied. Will a woman explain the reasons why Lucy made her final decision about the baby and her living arrangements? For me, it’s the most controversial moment in Disgrace, as it was for Lucy and her father Mr Lurie, the 2 main characters. I respect a woman’s right to choose--or not to choose--her pregnancy, and I certainly don’t judge how she leads a conspicuously difficult life. I may question, disagree, and debate, b More...

17 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Nate rated it:

ummm...no. I'm afraid for me, this book suffers from what I call the Booker disease. I've read very few books that won the Man Booker prize that I've enjoyed.

I looked through the GoodReads comments concerning this book and saw a lot of positive feedback. But not one of those comments talked about Coetzee's horrible dialogue. All of his characters speak like a phlebotomy textbook, and they are all just an obvious soundboard for the author's opinions. What's the point of making an idea More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Matt rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

8 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

She-Who-Reads rated it:

I literally just finished this book a few minutes ago, so I have not by any means worked though all of my reactions to it yet. It is written in a very spare, emotionally distanced style, even though it deals with very emotional topics. It is a page-turner, an absorbing, fast read that keeps you anxious to find out what happens next -- but that seems almost incidental, besides the point. I thoroughly disliked the main character, David Lurie -- he is unbelievably arrogant and chauvinistic -- bu More...

1 comment like (24 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

Liza rated it:

I would like very much to be able to coherently refute this novel. After finishing it I felt as though I had maybe been taken in because while reading it I accepted its premise(s), but afterwards I wondered if what had seemed true really held up to the glare of daylight.

There was a review by James Wood that I liked a lot, and here is a quote from it: “But people like novels that, however intelligently, tell them what to think, that table ideas and issues - novels that are discussabl More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

William rated it:

Disgrace is a beautifully written, emotionally blunt novel that maps, in shadows and scars, the complicated cultural geography of contemporary Cape Town. In Disgrace the decadence of Western privilege overlays the body of rural Africa; the useless academic hopes to shape and tame the simple thoughts of the unformed young; and art seeks to find honesty in first distantly mimicking then finally respecting the rough-hewn people it mines for material. Finally, and in a manner that makes this novel s More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2010

Ellen rated it:

...And, on second thought..."

I re-read this book last night and am still trying to sort out my feelings. At the level of writing, J.M. Coetzee is brilliant, his prose both spare and evocative.

But what to do with David Lurie? Coetzee humanizes this man and even invites us to empathize. Yet, does Lurie deserve our pity, on any level? He uses women, selected solely on the basis of their looks, and frequently expresses his contempt for women who are not beautiful. At the More...

1 comment like (15 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

laura added it

i don't know how to assign this book anything as linear as a 1-5 rating. it's an oddly troubling book. i didn't enjoy it, but i've continued to think of it and to be troubled by it for longer than any book written in recent memory, and that's quite something. i'd call it compelling, but i usually save that word for books that confront me with something undeniably/complicatedly true, and i don't know if this book is true or not.

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2012

Lavinia rated it:

Everything has a price. If you're a university professor getting involved with a student who later reports you, you pay the price: you're dismissed and your life is turned upside down.
If you're a young white woman and choose not to leave the ground you were born on (i.e. South Africa), you pay the price: you get robbed, raped and learn how to cope with the situation.

Definitely a fast and captivating read.

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Meredith rated it:

A professor once commented to me that Coetzee mistakes brutality for truth. Perhaps so at times, but this novel struck me as a much more redemptive work than Coetzee's earlier fiction. Briefly, it is a story that asks questions of possession: Should we own our belongings? Do we own our lives? Do we own our bodies? Do animals own theirs? Do we own our actions if they are driven by uncontrollable desire, or rage?

After refusing to offer a statement of contrition for an affair wit More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Yulia rated it:

Every time someone tells me I may change my mind about a book in a few years, that I'm just not at the right stage in my life to appreciate it, I shake my head and insist my opinion will never change. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam I am! But then, I have this book as a glaring reminder that sometimes, well, I do see things differently with time. When I first tried this in college, I stopped after 60 pages, repelled by the lack of affect and humanity in David Lurie. More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2011

Teresa rated it:

A brilliant, nearly flawless novel. I don't know a whole lot about contemporary South Africa, but it's obvious this book has a lot of important things to say, through its story and its characters, about the state of the country. Actually, though it's a slim novel, it has a lot to say, period. For starters, there's the meaning behind words, including the title word. There's also the indignities of life (and death) for animals and humans: growing older, becoming redundant, becoming too many.
More...

29 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Shannon rated it:

I had had no interest in reading Disgrace for many years but am now thoroughly glad I did, especially with the movie adaptation coming out (starring John Malkovich).

It's a quick read - I read it in about 6 hours (non-continual) - and very light on its feet. For all that, it deals with many political, cultural, racial and social issues and is definitely worthy of some in-depth study at college or university level.

David Lurie is a white Professor at Cape Town Technical Univ More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2011

Angus rated it:

Disclaimer: This is not a review. This may have spoilers. Read at your own risk. Visit original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Intro

I got this at regular price back in college. I bought it even if I found the cover unappealing: a stray dog on a barren dirt road. I am not into judging books by their covers, but nice covers sometimes help. It’s hard not to be drawn to a book with a sleek cover design.

Oh yes, this novel is a Booker winner. The author is a N More...

87 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2011

K.D. rated it:

J. M.Coetzee richly deserves his second Man Booker Award (1999) as I enjoyed this far more than his The Life and Times of Michael K (Man Booker Award 1983). This is also the one included in the 501 Must Read Books so I read it.

The story is about an aging professor (52 y/o) who had an affair with his student that caused his expulsion from the university. He has been twice divorced and with the pension denied by the university, he had no choice but to live with his lesbian daughter who More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

Eleni rated it:

I am traveling to Tanzania this summer with a group of seven other students and in preparation for our trip, we were assigned to read two books written by African authors. I choose the novel Disgrace by John Maxwell Coetzee, a South African author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Disgrace is the story of David Lurie, a white professor of English at a technical university in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a lonely man, twice divorced, who craves adventure because of his discontent in h More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 11, 2008

Kathleen rated it:

I think this is a very well-written novel. Coetzee is very well-regarded so this isn't news. However, when I finished the book, I felt like there was something missing. After thinking about it and discussing it with someone else who read it as well, I think it comes down to the portrayal of the main female character, David's daughter. I don't think he authentically developed this character in a way that would explain her (shocking) decisions in the novel. You could argue that this is the po More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Nathaniel rated it:

I read Coetzee after going on a binge of African literature. Given his world-historical and cultural position, I couldn't help being bothered to the point of acute aggravation by the fact that "Disgrace" seems like propaganda--excellently disguised, subtle, hand-wringing propaganda against the good hopes of his country. The whole time I was in South Africa it was impossible to avoid being besieged by white people who sought to poison my own conception of their black countrymen. This wa More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2010

Alexandra rated it:

Ein Collegeprofessor erlebt in Südafrika im Herbst seines Lebens sein persönliches Waterloo, als er eine Affäre mit einer seiner Studentinnen anfägt: Job weg, Ruf beim Teufel. Aber es kommt noch schlimmer: Als seine Tochter bei einem Überfall auf das Haus vergewaltigt wird und er hilflos dabei zusehen muss, ist seine Schande komplett. Was der Schande folgt sind Scham und Sprachlosigkeit eines Traumas. Vater und Tochter können einander nicht helfen - bleiben in ihrem Leid und den Konsequenzen aus More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Deb rated it:

After rereading "Waiting for the Barbarians", I was reminded how much I appreciate J.M. Coetze's ability to write about the implications of oppression through the lens of a few characters while illuminating the impact across a society. This novel centered on a white professor in post-apartheid South Africa who seduced one of his students, resulting in his termination. Feeling lost in the world, he sought refuge with his daughter who lives on a small farm in the Eastern Cape. After a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Bonnie rated it:

Well - everything was right with this book but I did not grow to love the main character -- which - under the circumstances is mnost likely what the author intended. But it is a beautiful book, filled with ironies and counter ironies, love, lust and every emotion in between.
And, what I found ironic about myself was that I found myself not exactly liking the "good" characters.
Coetzee is a master.

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

Hazard rated it:

Das Buch ist flüssig geschrieben, Coetzees Sprache ist klar und verzichtet auf unnötige Schnörkel.
Diese packt er lieber in die Handlung. Es wurden zu viele Themen in das Buch gepackt: Altern, Generationenkonflikt, sexuelle Frustration, sexuelle Belästigung, Vergewaltigung, Rache, Vergebung, Rassismus, Erbschuld, Sühne, Wahrheitskommission, „Rainbownation“, Tierschutz, Selbstfindung… was man dem Autor noch zugute halten kann ist, dass er das alles auf relativ wenigen Seiten unterbringen kan More...

12 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2010

penelopewanders rated it:

Finally got around to reading a book by this author who was recommended highly (not to mention the Nobel prize...). Hmm. I guess I just have a problem when it comes to reading about people I don't particularly like. Although it doesn't end up being an issue, I wanted to hang him by his toes when he refused to read the complaint filed, and I generally found him so imperious as to be unbearable. Ironically, this too was tucked into my suitcase for my trip to a women's conference where we discussed More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Jeremy added it

On the surface, it reminds me of Roth's "The Human Stain" a lot. Here we have another disgraced, aging, academic Lothario trying to come to grips with a shift in racial/cultural dynamics which leaves the older generation looking, if not bigoted, then just bizarre and antiquated. And yet for how cool and distant Coetzee's tone is, this book seemed to me much more personal, much more intensely felt than Roth's. There is this incredible, unspoken sense of violence which permeates through More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 02, 2011

مختار rated it:

رواية جيدة

في جنوب أفريقيا ما بعد التمميز العنصري يتورط مدرس جامعي (52 عاما) في اغواء إحدى طالباته (ميلانيي إسحق) ويدخل معها في علاقة قصيرة، تُفتضح فيخسر وظيفته وينتقل للعيش مع ابنته لوسي في مزرعتها في بلدة أخرى.
هناك تتعرض لوسي للاغتصاب (3 من السود) ويفشل والدها في حمايتها. ترفض لوسي اجهاض نفسها ، ويعرض بطرس (جارها الأسود وقريب الصبي الذي شارك في اغتصاب لوسي) الزواج بها. تعرف لوسي أن العرض معناه الحصول على الحماية من بطرس ضد أية اعتداءات أخرى فتتنازل عن الأرض وتستبقي لنفسها الب More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 23, 2010

Lady Ethereal Butterfly rated it:

J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace is the story of an arrogant man surrounded by scandal and dishonor. David Lurie, a South African university professor, has done something shameful by sleeping with one of his students. Forced to resign from his teaching position due to his stubborn attitude and unwillingness to give a sincere apology, he goes into the countryside to live on his daughter’s farm. His life there is dull until something terrible happens that will forever alter him.

I feel like I More...

9 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2010

Dri rated it:

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I feel a little baited and switched. I read the book enticed by the scandal which opens the first few chapters. Although I find the main character, David Lurie a bit irritating especially when he refuses to take any responsibility for the seduction of his young student ("I am subject to Eros"), I refrain from moral judgement since I just don't find his crime that terribly offensive. What still sits uneasy with me is the author's subtle More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)