Disgrace by Coetzee

Hello

I just finished the book Disgrace by JM Coetzee. I loved his simple style and the way he used plain sentences that drew the reader into the narrative. The opening line is just superb about how this character has solved the problem of sex, for a divorced man of 52. Characterisation like this is enviable. His whole personality is expressed in this beginning and the novel unravels his demise at it progresses. Basically, he rapes a young student in his course at university. I found him detestable in the beginning of the novel but by the end not so horrible.

HIs faults became moderated and I think he achieved some self knowledge, even in the fact that he realised he had little self knowledge that is a form of honesty in itself. People living in denial do not know they are doing so, if they did know then they would no longer be living in it. :)

It was mentioned at university that he doesn't change throughout the novel. I do not agree with this. When I read the end of the novel he shows he has changed. Ever so slightly, but he has changed, his perspective, he starts to use the word love and he starts to believe animals have souls and he wants to protect his daughter. He has sex with an older lady who is not beautiful and starts to realise that his desires will not always be able to filled. He still has them but he resigns himself to a different life.

A novel that I didn't particularly like in the beginning did engage me by the end. The women characters seemed to be somewhat oppressed throughout the novel. Except for his daughter, who the reader feels slightly annoyed by for some of the novel but by the end she seems to make sense. She is seeking to be different, kind, and peaceful, and these things seem ridiculous when faced with violence and brute force. However, she is the most together character by the end of the novel.

There is a wonderful beauty in her embracing the ugliness of the situation around her and a wonderful scene where she is picking flowers in the garden and the sun is shining on her back. I think this novel - though it shows black African people as cunning and conniving, achieved some very subtle characterisation with the main characters.

The two African men and the down trodden African women in the book are less desirable characters. In fact the main black African character - David Lurie likes him in the beginning but in the end cannot abide him. So I know there will be racist interpretations about this. Sometimes though there are characters of certain racial backgrounds that we create that are not nice but this does not mean it is inherently racist. These were the particular characters in this story.

The white professor is not spared, he is violent in his own way, he takes sex from women and then drops them back onto the street. He is no better than the men who rape his daughter. So I think this is Coetzee's point. It is the women who have to put up with this situation. They are the wives, daughters, students, and veterinarians helping animals.

I cannot work out whether he has painted them with dignity or not, there is a comment on women and their subjugation that is a side issue, however, maybe as a woman these things are heightened for me. Women seem victims in this book but some of them rise above it, like his daughter, like the vet, like his ex wife, who seems strong and some don't I guess that is real. In some ways, they seem to make more sense than the men who are acting on impulse and their animal desires.

No wonder it won the Booker Prize, however I can also see that people could really dislike this book, for many reasons. But overall it has had a lasting effect on me. One thing was there was not a lot of beauty in it. But the characters stood out as real, and compelling and that is a major accomplishment!