Rating: 
Summary: Puzzled and Curious
Review: Not knowing what to expect from "Disgrace," I learned within a few pages not to predict a character's logic or actions; especially those of the daughter, Lucy. After her father David destroys his career--and perhaps his coping skills--through his own leacherous actions, he retreats to the agri-compound of Lucy's farm. A violent and invasive crime visits father and daughter and exposes every raw nerve shared by father and daugher, author and country.Unfortunately, Lucy's very warped sense of noblesse oblige was frustrating in its stubborn illogic. At the same time Coetzee unfolds the many layers of his story, Lucy's motivation is stretching thinner and thinner to the point of unbelievability. Once finished, though, "Disgrace" deserves a second reading (it's only 220 pages, it can't hurt). A second reading because the language is smooth and polished, and the nagging feeling that there are still so many things I didn't quite understand. Don't look for a nice neat ending, don't look for any the-butler-did-it conveniences, but after the last page look for someone to help you see it all from a different angle, hopefully the right angle.
Rating: 
Summary: A Most Engaging Novel
Review: Coetzee adroitly lures you into this story by intoducing the reader to an aging academic who is becoming disillusioned with his profession and participating in unbecoming affairs with young students. He justifies his infantile urges by dressing them up in the words of Romantic poets. Although, while discussing the engaging plight of this individual, Coetzee brings you into a discussion of modern South Africa without you exactly realizing what is going on. The end result is an interesting discussion of not only South Africa and this particular individual, but the human condition, our relationships with animals, and the requirements of the human soul. This is a very touching novel that does a good job of concretizing abstract dilemnas into engaging characters placed in moving situations. Well done.
Rating: 
Summary: An Examination of Ethics
Review: I cried upon completing "Disgrace," not necessarily for any of the characters in the book but because this story brings home the difficulty of living. Without sentimentality, without emotional manipulation, J.M. Coetzee draws the reader in to a captivating story laden with such weighty questions as the balance of power, sexual and racial politics, animal rights, the question of whether or not a soul exists. Set in post-Apartheid South Africa, the questions of human rights, the distribution of wealth and resources, and shifting power differentials require the reader to set aside both biases and an easy allegiance to political correctness, and read with heart alone. This book reminds me of "The Reader," by Bernhard Schlink, for its sparse prose and thick, ethical, pondering that takes the reader to a difficult but ultimately very worthwhile place.
Rating: 
Summary: lukewarm
Review: Let us avoid confusing this mediocrity with a great novel. We have here a five star story with a two star execution. David Lurie, the middle aged protagonist on the downslide, maintains an air of intellectual superiority through a steady progression of reversals less dark than some reviews portend. The book deals with interesting, universal themes: the clash of two cultures; a difficult parent-adult child relationship; growing old. But unfortunately in the development, every single twist of plot winds up without going anywhere. The writing is passable, entertaining, and lacking in wit and cleverness. To give Coetze credit there is a modern philosphical and psychological background to his characters, but I read the book and I am unable to tell you what it is. How much more interesting and believable had Lurie finally received his come-uppance, perhaps from a more intellectually capable Melanie, or had the black criminals been dealt with in some manner after their crime, maybe by a firing squad of black African police.
Rating:
Summary: Like a Scalpel Through a Country's Skin
Review: Coetzee cuts his prose so sharply reading the book is like being cut yourself. Not only about South Africa, the book is about universal human truths, which some people might find discomforting when confronted with them so nakedly. Brilliant and unsettling, this book is fully worthy of its Booker.
Rating:
Summary: Take your time with this one
Review: This book can be a "quick read". Its prose is spartan and the chapters short. But don't miss out on the rewards you will get by reflecting afterwards on what you've read. Coetzee gives you exactly the information you need, and like a Greek play, where the violence occurs off-stage, your imagination can fill in without limit the horror of what has happened "between the lines". The themes of debasement and rape are more than particular to the main character; when read in the context of the whiteman's history in South Africa, these crimes will now deny the former "Master" the moral authority to affect the course of events in the new society. Toward the end of the book, the return to the scene of the crime is totally damning and only in the final sentence is the lesson learned.
Rating:
Summary: A white South African book
Review: I did not like Disgrace. Although well-written in the sense that I wanted to go on reading to the end. I found it to be a very negative book. In the picture that Coetzee paints, post-apartheid South Africa is on the path to ruin. The only black characters in the book are portrayed as threatening and untrustworthy. Not even the landscape is described with any affection. Having been born and raised in South Africa, I can sense the author's white colonial attitudes seeping into the book. When I visit South Africa I experience a great deal of warmth from South Africans of many different backgrounds, this is not reflected in the book in any way, and perhaps the author has not experienced it himself. I would stop just short of calling this a racist book, but only because there is a sort of resignation in the book to accepting the new status quo. I would add that the book does accurately reflect the unease felt by many white South Africans who are having difficulty adjusting to the new political dispensation. I would contrast this book to "Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle, which is about a similar issue (illegal Mexican immigrant/white American rather than black/white South African), and is written in a much more sympathetic and empathetic way.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read !
Review: One of the most realistic presentations of post-apartheid life in South Africa. We find the story of David Lurie and his daughter, Lucy, entwined with academic boredom, moralism, racial issues, rape and family dysfunctionality. There is something for everyone in this book. Particularly those who yearn for good literature. You won't be able to put this book down ! I couldn't. You may not not grow to like the characters, yet you will certainly get to know them in this powerful novel.
Rating:
Summary: Disgrace - A Timeless Emotional Study
Review: J. M. Coetzee in his latest book, Disgrace, has created a timeless masterpiece of emotion and the process of mental maturation. Despite the fact that the book takes place in So. Africa, the setting is completely immaterial to the story. The basic message and circumstances in the book could take place in virtually any country in any time. Additionally, Coetzee uses especially creative literary technique and in a unique way is able to keep the reader's attention and yet not reveal his final direction until the very last line of the very last page. Coetzee takes the reader through a process of thought which is revealing and poignant, as well as, personal and touching. This book of a mere 220 pages is well worth every second spent in absorbing the author's message. It truly deserved the Booker Award for 1999.
Rating:
Summary: Zero at the Bone
Review: This novel extends the achievements - both linguistically and narratively - that Samuel Beckett began earlier in this century with his series of every-darkening, ever-shrinking novels. Ironically, however, Coetzee has found a way to do so without discarding "realistic" character development or narrative line. This is the most "realistic" of all of Coetzee's novels (even more so than Age of Iron with its Dostoevsky-like haunting double) - yet at the same time it is the most stripped. Everything in this book is pared down to its bare essence - while he also manages to utilize references to and thematic elements of Romanticism. I read this book with my eyes pried open as if by nails, and followed it to the zero sum of despair, disgrace and terror. But I found the book strangely beautiful, elegant and lyrical at the same time. I see this book as a series of extremes balanced in such a way as to truly present what it is like to live at this moment as a citizen of the world. Forgive me, but this book is truly, as a friend of mine likes to say, "Greek." Terrible and beautiful are its effects on one's mind and spirit. You will not read another book like this any time soon. If you are not prepared, however, to experience what Emily Dickinson described as the feeling of "zero at the bone," then pass this book by. But you will be missing an essential spiritual experience (and I'm not talking about religion). Disgrace is one of the most terrifying portraits of the human race you will ever read. Coetzee is truly a master. (For his definition of that word - or "Dostoevsky's" definition of it - see The Master of Petersburg.)
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