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Disgraceby J.M. Coetzee |
Kim Sisto Robinson: The New Yorker says this about "Disgrace" ---"Coetzee's sentences are coiled springs, and the energy they release would take other writers pages to summon."
I felt those springs release, wrench, and SNAP.
"Disgrace" begins with an affair. 52 year old, Professor David Lurie crosses the uncrossable line when he has an affair with one of his 19 year old students. And the thing is; he has absolutely no remorse. "I will not issue an apology which I may not be sincere of, sir" he says to the University Committee. Lurie is rightly fired and shunned by friends, family, and co-workers. He retreats to the Eastern Cape of South Africa where he helps on his daughter's farm. He tries to be the father he never was. He fails miserably.
And just when the reader assumes Lurie is somewhat altering, he says this, "If a man
cannot follow his instinct, he might as well be shot." We know immediately he is unchangeable,
unresponsive, unapologetic, and lost inside a world of indifference. "Disgrace" is an award
winning novel with page after page of poetry and coiled up springs that erupt and
explode inside the reader's faces. I loved it!
Rating: *****
