Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee"Man Booker Prize Winner (1999)
After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding.
For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship."
Genres: Fiction
Also by this author: Life and Times of Michael K
John Michael Coetzee – “who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider” – won the Nobel Prize in 2003 and also the The Man Booker Prize twice: for this novel in 1999 and for “Life and times of Michael K” in 1983. “Disgrace” is his first book that I’ve read so far and I enjoyed it a lot. I will definitely read his other novels mentioned in the 1001 Must Read Books.
“After a certain age, all affairs are serious. Like heart attacks.”
“There are more important things in life than being prudent.”
“When all else fails, philosophize.”
“The more things change the more they remain the same. History repeating itself, though in a more modest vein. Perhaps history has learned a lesson.”
“Long visits don’t make for good friends.”
“One can’t plead guilty to charges of turpitude and expect a flood of sympathy in return. Not after a certain age. After a certain age one is simply no longer appealing, and that’s that. One just have to buckle down and live out the rest of one’s life. Serve one’s time.”
“They (- dogs -) do us the honour of treating us like gods, and we respond by treating them like things.”
“Vengeance is like a fire. The more it devours, the hungrier it gets.”
“[…] trials are not about principles, they are about how well you put yourself across.”
“A good person. Not a bad resolution to make, in dark times.”
“He lacks the virtues of the old: equanimity, kindliness, patience. But perhaps those virtues will come as other virtues go: the virtue of passion, for instance.”
