Pa's review
Disgrace (Penguin Essential Edition)
by J.M. Coetzee
PA--I think your view of the book is really interesting. I think I need to toughen up because I thought of this book when I was reading the Quiet American. They're both beautifully written, but I felt horribly uncomfortable with the characters. I understood that both writers were taking their perspective to make a point, but the books left me cold.
Hi Karen! I could see why you found the protagonists of the Quiet American and Disgrace are not very "endearing" or "likable." Their morality is somewhat tainted by their relationships with women and each has rough edges, but I found their characters/stories fascinating nonetheless. Actually, I really like Fowler , the journalist in the Quiet American; he seemed to play a part of Graham Greene -- very complex -- he's romantic and passionate but sarcastic and disillusioned all at once.
Interesting--because I didn't like Fowler either. He was the most sympathetic and you're right very complex, but his viewpoint left me feeling dirty. I was probably influenced by too many women's studies classes where the focus is on the voices of the outsiders, not the people in power. I get that this is a powerful way to tell a story, but I really struggled with both the novels.
Yes it crossed my mind that you've read too many feminist studies; it's hard for men to meet your standard. ;) Even our beloved romantic hero Mr. Darcy--the object of desire of millions and millions of women in the entire history of Pride and Prejudice--didn't live up to your expectation of a gentleman so I can see why Fowler would come short. ;)
More seriously, though, what attracts me to Graham Greene and his art is that his works are infused with compassion and wisdom. Most of the protagonists of his major novels -- Brighton Rock, the Power and the Glory, the Heart of the Matter, the End of the Affair, the Quiet American, Burnout Case, to name a few, are the anti-heros, amoral hedonists or self-loathing egoists who seem to be unworthy of our admiration but in Greene's eyes they are real and alive and deserve our compassion. That is because Greene sees the world as full of sinners and God is needed to the extent that he could help alleviate suffering. It's a very wise and compassionate view of the world. The genius of the Quiet American--for me at least is that Greene brilliantly captures, through a literary metaphor, the essence of American naiveté and arrogance abroad. The Quiet American was written in the early 50s, 20 years before the Vietnam war ended, but Greene's foresight of the doomed ending of the American intervention in Vietnam couldn't be more prescient. 50 years on with the Iraq war now looming over us as a complete nightmare, I found it refreshing and gratifying to read the Quiet American. Reading it is like taking pain-killers for me -- it helps soothe the pain of seeing America get bogged down in another disastrous war in another country where we have no legitimate reason to be there. The triangle-love story in the Quiet American is Greene’s ingenious metaphor to depict the tangled, doomed relationship between America, Europe and Vietnam.
Pa's review
Disgrace (Penguin Essential Edition) by J.M. Coetzee
Pa's review
rating:
"Disgrace" is my first J.M. Coetzee novel and I loved it! Coetzee's writing is sparing and simple yet quite lyrical and beautiful which reminds me of Graham Greene's. The novel starts with the sudden fall from grace of a white twice married twice divorced college professor of English literature whose career was put to an abrupt end after he was accused of sleeping and sexually harassing his student. It then follows the protagonist to a remote village where he found his daughter and decided to stay on her farm. It is on this farm that the true disgrace of his life took place. Here, the disgraced professor witnessed with his own eyes the brutal rape of his daughter by 3 black men while failing to do anything at all. The novel vividly captures the protagonist's pains and I completely agree that it is exceedingly brave of J. M. Coeetzee to take on such a sensitive and politically in-correct topic, namely blacks' hatred towards whites in South Africa.
PA--I think your view of the book is really interesting. I think I need to toughen up because I thought of this book when I was reading the Quiet American. They're both beautifully written, but I felt horribly uncomfortable with the characters. I understood that both writers were taking their perspective to make a point, but the books left me cold.
Hi Karen! I could see why you found the protagonists of the Quiet American and Disgrace are not very "endearing" or "likable." Their morality is somewhat tainted by their relationships with women and each has rough edges, but I found their characters/stories fascinating nonetheless. Actually, I really like Fowler , the journalist in the Quiet American; he seemed to play a part of Graham Greene -- very complex -- he's romantic and passionate but sarcastic and disillusioned all at once.
Interesting--because I didn't like Fowler either. He was the most sympathetic and you're right very complex, but his viewpoint left me feeling dirty. I was probably influenced by too many women's studies classes where the focus is on the voices of the outsiders, not the people in power. I get that this is a powerful way to tell a story, but I really struggled with both the novels.
Yes it crossed my mind that you've read too many feminist studies; it's hard for men to meet your standard. ;) Even our beloved romantic hero Mr. Darcy--the object of desire of millions and millions of women in the entire history of Pride and Prejudice--didn't live up to your expectation of a gentleman so I can see why Fowler would come short. ;)
More seriously, though, what attracts me to Graham Greene and his art is that his works are infused with compassion and wisdom. Most of the protagonists of his major novels -- Brighton Rock, the Power and the Glory, the Heart of the Matter, the End of the Affair, the Quiet American, Burnout Case, to name a few, are the anti-heros, amoral hedonists or self-loathing egoists who seem to be unworthy of our admiration but in Greene's eyes they are real and alive and deserve our compassion. That is because Greene sees the world as full of sinners and God is needed to the extent that he could help alleviate suffering. It's a very wise and compassionate view of the world. The genius of the Quiet American--for me at least is that Greene brilliantly captures, through a literary metaphor, the essence of American naiveté and arrogance abroad. The Quiet American was written in the early 50s, 20 years before the Vietnam war ended, but Greene's foresight of the doomed ending of the American intervention in Vietnam couldn't be more prescient. 50 years on with the Iraq war now looming over us as a complete nightmare, I found it refreshing and gratifying to read the Quiet American. Reading it is like taking pain-killers for me -- it helps soothe the pain of seeing America get bogged down in another disastrous war in another country where we have no legitimate reason to be there. The triangle-love story in the Quiet American is Greene’s ingenious metaphor to depict the tangled, doomed relationship between America, Europe and Vietnam.
