Disgrace

Rating:
Summary: Works on so many levels
Review: Disgrace works on so many different levels. It is an incredible and disturbing read. Good literature has the power to transform readers, and Coetzee's novel has that power. Disgrace is a reflection on both man's inhumanity and his capacity for change. It is a reflection on race, feminism, politics and love. Professor David Lurie is a character well worth a reader's consideration.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, but beautiful and thoughtful
Review: I expected this book to be a bleak but necessary exercise in political allegory. Maybe some have interpreted "Disgrace" this way, but I found it a rich human drama written in breath-takingly clear, diamond hard prose. For me, most of its politics is on the level of individual human relationships, the power dynamics between two people, and the ways those dynamics can change (or not), as well as the means of those changes. Coetzee's main character, the disgraced professor Lurie, is much more than a characature, thanks to Coetzee's sympathy for both human foibles, and our ability to rationalize the worst of our actions. The prose is stark, highly readable, but the characters and incidents are very much alive--you may not like Lurie, but you'll believe he exists. Despite the dark nature of the action, I didn't think of this as a bleak book. Coetzee does seem to offer a glimmer of redemption. One of the strongest works of fiction I've read in a long time, one that's both a pleasure to read and to ponder.

Rating:
Summary: AN OK BOOK!
Review: I read this book because it had high ratings and for the most part I agreed with them when I had finished. I do think the characters could have behad a bit more life too them, but it was still good. If you want to another read a book that goes straight to your heart, read Stolen Moments by Barbara Jeanne Fisher. . .It is a beautiful story of unrequited love. . .for certain the love story of the nineties. I intended to give the book a quick read, but I got so caught up in the story that I couldn't put the book down. From the very beginning, I was fully caught up in the heart-wrenching account of Julie Hunter's battle with lupus and her growing love for Don Lipton. This love, in the face of Julie's impending death, makes for a story that covers the range of human emotions. The touches of humor are great, too, they add some nice contrast and lighten things a bit when emotions are running high. I've never read a book more deserving of being published. It has rare depth. Julie's story will remind your readers that life and love are precious and not to be taken for granted. It has had an impact on me, and for that I'm grateful. Stolen Moments is written with so much sensitivity that it made me want to cry. It is a spellbinder. What terrific writing. Barbara does have an exceptional gift! This book was edited by Lupus specialist Dr. Matt Morrow too, and has the latest information on that disease. ..A perfect gift for someone who started college late in life, fell in love too late in life, is living with any illness, or trying to understand a loved one who is. . .A gift to be cherished forever.

Rating:
Summary: DISGRACE
Review: AN ABSOLUTE MUST. IT DEALS WITH RELATION BETWEEN A TEACHER AND HIS STUDENT, A FATHER AND HIS DAUGHTER, BLACKS AND WHITES, HOW WE TREAT EACH OTHER, AND HUMANITY'S TREATMENT OF ANIMALS AND HOW IT REFLECTS ON US AS FEELING, CARING HUMAN BEINGS. HIS PICTURE IS NOT A PRETTY ONE, AND REQUIRES SOME HARD THINKING OF WHAT CAN WE DO OURSELVES TO IMPROVE ON OUR ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATION WITH PEOPLE AROUND US.

Rating:
Summary: Wake Up Oprah!
Review: Coetzee has proven himself worthy of a second Booker Prize with "Disgrace." His language is detailed and specific, his tones layered with a plethora of moods. Specifically, his dialogue in reaction to the setting; the rural South African scenes in particular. Coetzee is not afraid to deal with the down-trodden thoughts of his characters nor the brutal realities of modern displacement. The main character, David, is both the protagonist and antagonist. He seeks to defy old age and the connotations that hinder it. A brilliant effort.

Rating:
Summary: Rich in craftsmanship, absent in heart
Review: It's evident that the author is a master craftsman. The use of simple language reminded me of the writing style of Michael Cunningham's The Hours in its pure virtuosity and power. The story is engaging and evokes its fair share of emotional responses, which is a mark of good story telling. The protagonist, David Lurie, and his daughter were roundly drawn and credible to a great degree but are also certainly pathetic and foolish beyond all reason. I empathized with them all in their many incredible misfortunes and with those poor dogs. But underneath a great story there is usually some moment when the soul is lifted and we become wiser or stronger or nobler for having read the work. Disgrace held no such moment for me. And I so hoped for some shred of redemption among these poor lost souls. Indeed, the publisher would have done well to package a cyanide caplet neatly within the hardbound edition to put us out of our misery from such a wretching, heartless and utterly hopeless tale. I can't remember a story line quite so absent of heart. The pity is that such an absence masks as realism, which in this case doesn't begin to compensate for the despair that the author heaps so relentlessly upon his readers. Life certainly has more than its fair share of ugliness, if you care to focus upon it, especially to such an extreme. We all know this. However, great writers uncover the mystery, the heart and soul of humans tormented by adversity or treachery or their own folly. Hummingbird House by Patricia Henley is a better example of a person under duress who rises above extremes of social and political injustice. The author gets high marks for craftsmanship. Aren't we weary yet of great technicians who have no great stories to tell? Let's hope that in his next book the author manifests some semblance of heart. Isn't that the point, after all?

Rating:
Summary: Without preaching, it brings you to unavoidable conclusions
Review: I read this book in 1.5 hours at a coffee shop (it's been quite awhile since I've been so involved in a book). In its spareness of language it is quite similar to Haruf's recent _Plainsong_, but of course in other respects they are very different books. I really appreciated the author's attempt to talk about moral issues in South African politics without explicitly moralizing: in the daughter's response to the violence against her one sees the variety of options that confront the powerless on BOTH sides of the problem. The prose is elegant, as is the narrative. The subtle, never over-writen ironies of the book (a "communications" professor who is such a lousy communicator, the wronged oppressed people who wrong others, for example) add to its elegance. I also appreciated that Coetzee did not attempt to make his protagonist attractive to us: in his faults and virtues he seems a very believable person.

Rating:
Summary: Unforgetable....
Review: This book...this book. I can't get some of the scenes out of my mind. I suppose what struck me most is the dogs, and human treatment of animals. We (the human race) have been a Disgrace. I see that disgrace as ever more important that the professor's disgrace.

Rating:
Summary: A disturbing, compelling read
Review: As a South African who usually avoids reading South African novels, I reluctantly purchased this book, only after it won the Booker Prize - based on the fact that I have read all Coetzee's other novels and I usually read Booker Prize winners. The book was so compelling I started and finished it in one sitting. In all, the book deeply unsettled me through the ordinariness of the language which managed to avoid my noticing its hard, dark "realism- clothed" pessimism before it had shaken my (self-imposed) positive worldview to the point where I almost wondered, "Maybe I really should leave the country once and for all". This is an "adapt or die" kind of book which is well-worth reading,and re-reading. It is the only book I've read in a year which managed to make me think, really think, about my life and my country, and I thank Coetzee for that.

Rating:
Summary: Tremendous....A reading experience like none other
Review: The London Times' review of Disgrace called Coetzee one the greatest novelists writing today and this book is the proof. Not a single word wasted and in 200 pages, the modern South African state is delivered. This author cannot win enough Bookers for me.