Disgrace is a gentle and equally brutal tale charting the life of David Lurie, a lecturer at a University in Cape Town, South Africa teaching Romantic poetry. His attitude towards others is both condescending and snobbish, particularly towards his students. He lives a lonely, isolated life having been divorced twice already. Middle-aged and becoming rather stuffy, he seems content to still play the field, finding himself a new play thing in the form of a student named Melanie Isaacs.
Up until this point, Lurie has been content with visiting a prostitue named Soraya every Thursday night. He finds himself drawn to her to the point of contacting a dectective agency when she stops her appearences, only to be rejected by her when calling. It seems almost inevitable that regardless of the lady in question, he will eventually be rejected, and his reaction is simply to find someone else. So he pursues his interests in Isaacs.
The result of his one night with her results in an awkwardness, a rejection which is apparent during class thereafter. His seduction began on level ground, with her neither submitting nor rejecting, but soon it becomes darker and you can argue that Isaacs was essentially raped in Lurie’s own home. With the incident brought into the public light, he refuses to publicly make any apology for his action as an individual who was dedciated with the responsibility of being both teacher and protector of his students.
Coetzee manages to write without every sounding patronising, seemingly having a grip and understanding that Lurie lacks, on the life of white South Africans
Disgraced and forced to resign, he gives in and decides to visit his daughter who lives on a small farm away from Cape Town. He consoles himself with the thought that the idyllic country life would soothe his personal distress, he would be able to complete his book on Byron, and perhaps solidify his relationship with his daughter.
The behaviour and life style that his daughter leads, however, shocks him as someone who lived a comfortable, and wealthy (by comparison) living. His daughter struggles to make ends meet at a market, living with her lesbian partner who’s away on holiday, and a load of dogs. This isn’t quite what Lurie has in mind, and finds that his adjustment to such a lifestyle is much more difficult than he had anticipated.
When an incident occurs involving his daughter, Lurie’s primaly urges come to the fore resulting in a manic reaction, which his daughter fails to recognise and in fact denounces. She begs, pleads and requests that he control himself. Lurie’s temper grows greater, as one of those who committed the crime was among the several black South Africans living next door. Lurie’s world turns into a personal nightmare that he can neither comprehend nor understand.
Coetzee has written a very powerful book on a some serious issues that concerned a changing South African society. The gap between blacks and white’s is ever changing, and on the farm land, their black South African neighbours begin has helpers, only then to become owners, where as Lurie and his daughter live the lives of guests in all aspects. The stubborness of his daughter is something inherited from her parents, but also offers an understanding and realisation that the comparitive dinosaur Lurie is unable to contemplate.
How Lurie tries to justify and then recollect and compares the incidents of what he did, and what happened to his daughter offers and intriguing dichotmy of his reaction. On the one hand this incident is in reality no different to his own situation in the past, and yet here he is, this time the father of the victim. His love for his daughter is paramount, but his greatest hatered lies perhaps in those who committed the crime, and also his lack of appreciation of the situation, of the changing times, and where they are. His daughter is no longer a child, but a woman, one who has lived away from the shadow of her parents most of her life, and has no need for her father even now. Perhaps this is one of the many factors that eat away at Lurie, amongst his guilt, his sorrow and rage.
The characters are wonderfully real, raw and full of characteristics and feelings that bring them out of the page and into your mind. The situations, the energy and the clear and descriptive writing throws you into Cape Town, and the farm placing you into the role of Lurie, going through his torment and his incompatability with the new life.
The result of his one night with her results in an awkwardness, a rejection which is apparent during class thereafter
Coetzee manages to write without every sounding patronising, seemingly having a grip and understanding that Lurie lacks, on the life of white South Africans, and how it would change during the coming years, and how white South Africans could no longer accept their own dominance as the norm. It’s a contrasting and striking example of a world that is almost completely alien to me, but offered a glimpse into an evolving society, and into the very core of human nature within that society.
The trauma and topic can be applied universally in many regards, but the uniqueness with which the situation presents is managed without the need for kid gloves, without reserve and provides a book which offers an explosive human drama.
Verdict: A powerful, dark and intelligent piece on the evolution of South Africa, and the changing role of white South Africans