Disgrace | 
so-soThis book was a really difficult read because it was very upsetting. It is representative of South Africa and the tumultuous racial issues that are present there. I did not know enough to see the analogy and recognize that is a big reason why the book didn‘t resonate with me. 3/5
panI can see where the author was going but I just wasn‘t there with him.
pickThe real disgrace is,obviously, the apartheid past of South Africa. Its scars are palpable in this compelling story. But David Lurie, our protagonist, makes it all about him. He‘s growing old disgracefully. I‘ve not read a more superbly crafted, mean spirited, selfish person in a novel before. He‘s no Lecter, Bateman or anti-hero that you love to hate: He‘s just a complete narcissist & bastard & feels very real. I think the blurb contains spoilers
Picked this up on a whim at the Library this morning where I was getting some travel research done. I can‘t believe I haven‘t read any Coetzee, or this title that has been on my radar since it‘s publication in 1999. 59 pages in and admiring the precision of the authors prose and imagery. It‘s a window into 90s academia and relevant today. This is also book 12 for me in the #192025 challenge which has already enriched my reading and reduced my TBR
so-soI hadn‘t read Coetzee before but I managed to pick this up for a few dollars at the used bookstore in town. The writing is controlled, absolutely masterful. He‘s every bit as good as Ishiguro. But the main character is a complete piece-of-shit (a professor who is fired for sleeping with a student) who I found it impossible to empathize with. Coatzee humanizes him but the worst qualities shine through — unexamined arrogance, misplaced confidence.
so-soI don‘t have to like the characters to appreciate a book. And Coetzee can craft a sentence. But he couldn‘t (or didn‘t) make me care about the main character, David‘s, point of view. Even as everything in his life is falling apart, David is convinced that he knows better than everyone else. It felt like the author wanted to make David see that his actions were leaving a wide path of destruction, but each time he came close, he veered off into 👇🏻
Starting my #bookspin today. I‘m not sure the world needs another book about a man whose lack of self control gets him into scrapes, but it won a Nobel and the South African setting is interesting. @TheAromaofBooks
Day 12
Read this for a Contemporary Lit class & fell in love with JMC‘s writing style. I truly believe to fully grasp this work, you need background info on post-apartheid South Africa. I loathed David Lurie, a Romantic poetry professor who begins to have an affair with one of his students. In the end, you can‘t help but love and pity him. It‘s a very tough book (lots of triggers) but worth it.
#whatsonyourshelf #contemporary #southafrica
My current read for my IRL book club is this 1999 Booker Prize winner (and my first read by this author).
I‘m only a few chapters in and really enjoying the writing (while disliking the protagonist 😆).
pickThe protagonist David Lurie is an English language professor who lives his life on his own terms. Being a Romantic he doesn‘t believe in compromising with his principles. However, as the story progresses, David Lurie is revealed increasingly to be human - with his reverence for Wordsworth and Byron on the one hand and the objectification of women on the other.
1. Too much abuse of power as it starts with a 50 year old prof who forces himself onto an undergrad and gets in trouble for it. I think we‘re supposed to be sympathetic with his plight? 🤢🤷♂️ Still, hard to believe it was Nobel worthy in 2003.
2. Bojack Horseman (and yet it‘s also so sad ☹️)
3. Toast with Peanut Butter (Mr. Peanut butter anyone? 🐶)
4. Eastern
5. Blue Stripe Internet
#FriYayIntro
Thanks for the tag @vivastory 😁
1) The tagged book. I‘ll eventually buy it and read it. Promise!
2) The Road and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and Blindness by Jose Saramago
3) I don‘t need that kind of negativity in my life. I don‘t really keep track of a TBR.
4) The Hot Zone. I gave it a 4 on Goodreads. I haven‘t read much nonfic this year.
5) I‘m late so whoever is left!!
@Eggs #WondrousWednesday
panDavid is the type of MC that makes me think ‘you can be hated by society without actually being misunderstood, maybe you‘re just as much of an arse as everyone thinks‘.
An overbearing pompous academic does a Harvey Weinstein, sees appalling things happening to his daughter, and never manages to write his opera or meaningfully change. I haven‘t been on a journey, I haven‘t understood anything new, I‘ve just listened to some words for 7 hours.
I‘m not 100% against unlikeable characters and I never bail but I hate books that are more interested in navelgazing than being rewarding for readers
The mc ‘does not like women who don‘t make an effort to be attractive‘, says abt his daughter ‘her hips and breasts are now... ample‘ and ‘sapphic love - an excuse for putting on weight‘
It‘s possible this is heading somewhere rewarding but🤬at the idea this man is making any moral stands
so-soI‘m not entirely sure what to think of this book.
J.M. Coetzee‘s writing was amazing, but I feel that the protagonist of this novel, David Lurie, who is ostracized from his college community for not recognizing that his affair with a student was an abuse of power is hard to emphasize with in 2019.
Yet, the book was written in 1999 so its themes are ahead of its time.
Lurie‘s development on his daughter‘s farm doesn‘t do enough to redeem him.
pickThis is a brilliant novel. David Lurie has lost touch with the world around him when he is dismissed from his University in Cape Town after an affair with one of his students. He knows he is wrong but he doesn‘t realize HOW wrong in South African society that is passing him by after the end of apartheid.
Lurie is annoying and sometimes likeable but he is above all human. #1001books
pickThis is just the book I needed to get me out of my rut. This had all the feels that I needed and the writing was perfect. So glad I finally read this book.
Just started this and I am already hooked...ready for all the feels.
The one book I got for Christmas from a friend who was visiting her home in South Africa. The writing is superb so far. #currentread #southafrica
#adventrecommends Day 10
I would recommend anything from South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, but Disgrace is my personal favorite. It won the Booker prize in 1999, and Coetzee won the Nobel four years later. Make no mistake, though—this is a tough read. There‘s an unlikable hero in a violent post-apartheid setting and a questionable redemption at the end. Some may find the ending rather anticlimactic and unsatisfying. Still, it‘s a great read.
#adventrecommends Day 4
Thought provoking, disturbing, very uncomfortable to read ... and soooo good.
David Lurie is a middle aged college professor who has his life in order. Everything about his life is unfolding as he planned, until a young student of his lodges a complaint against him for his salacious conduct towards her. Admitting his guilt, but unrepentant, David is fired and flees to South Africa to live with his daughter. I haven‘t read this yet but I *think* I own it. 😂😂 #abbainaugust #whenikissedtheteacher
The story of David Lurie‘s downfall in shame and disgrace, amidst a country caught in racial and social oppression.
#marchintooz #cryinshame
pickI had to read this book for an African Lit class. I think what makes this book great is not simply the book itself, but the social commentary it makes on Post-Aparthied South Africa. It makes comments on the Truth and Reconciliation Committee and some other heavy topics. I think this book is much better if you understand the context and what it is trying to say. I still recommend it if South African Literature interests you.
pickIf I could describe this book in two words, it would be ABSOLUTE DISGUST! This one will be long remembered because it made me sick with some of the characters and some events in it. Brutally direct and simple in writing, it doesn't offer some fancy writing to amaze. And the main character, OMG, I could hit him for a week without getting tired. But everything together was one amazing book, more than worth reading! 4.6/5 ⭐
OMG, it's been almost a week since my last post. But I'm back. Currently reading this one. The topic is hot right now in the world. A bit disgusted by the main character at the moment, which is why I'm gonna finish it as soon as I can 🤓
pickI need something light and fluffy after this 😰
I love this story about selfish professor of literature, who was taught by life how to be humble ... and I like to be thrown straight into the story with the #FirstSentence
I was tagged by @BarbaraBB and I‘m tagging all who wants to play #FirstSentence game 😘
pickExcellent book. "[a]ny novel set in post-apartheid South Africa is fated to be read as a political portrait, but the fascination of Disgrace is the way it both encourages and contests such a reading by holding extreme alternatives in tension. Salvation, ruin."(Adam Mars-Jones) Entertaining level: ?????#Sha2014
pickSo far it is okay, it had been lying on my shelf for ages so now decided to read. #books #bookstoread #booksgalore
The basis for the story is - professor David Laurie has an affair with a student. The story is set in post-apartheid South Africa and is brutal and disturbing, but extremely thought provoking.
#lyricalapril #badromance
#lyricalapril #africa
I have a lot more Africa-related books on my shelves, but I'm highlighting the books from the syllabus of an African literature class I took while I was in University. I highly recommend all of these!
so-soI feel ridiculous for not being more impressed with this book. It didn't live up to WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS imo. Still better than most books, but not as great as I'd expected. Kind of just a regular book.
Because of his actions and views, David Lurie becomes a renegade in society. It's a heavy and complicated story, set in post-apartheid South Africa.
#lyricalapril #renegades
pickThe story is layered with many ideas and the common point is disgrace. Professor David Laurie had a affair with student. He is forced to resign and he retreats to his daughter's farm.
It is a very good/interesting book about weaknesses, helplessness and despair, but I regret that I've read it because it's disturbing on many levels, a last scene from this book-it will haunt me for some time... and I wonder if this is the price for good literature?
Bookstack from a few days ago when my favorite used bookstore stayed open late for me.
#otisandclementine
#readeverydayeverywhere
#readingissexy
"The men will watch the newspapers, listen to the gossip. They will read that they are being sought for robbery and assault and nothing else. It will be dawn on them that over the body of the woman silence is being drawn like a blanket. Too ashamed, they will say to each other, too ashamed to tell, and they will chuckle luxuriously, recollecting their exploit. Is Lucy prepared to concede them that victory? "
So since my trip is about to finish I felt like treating myself to a more chill day in a coffee house drinking some tea with real milk (might not seem like much, but I've had a month of mostly powdered cream or condensed milk so quite the luxury!) my last book left and just found out there is no English bookshop in krabi so thank God we still pass through Bangkok before leaving! need booms for the flight! never read any Coetzee books before!
"'Perhaps it does us good,' he says, 'to have a fall every now and then. As long as we don't break.'" ?
pickWhat a ride. I can't even put into words how magnificent and poignant this novel is. Just read it. It brings into light issues of rape, race, and injustice. J.M. Coetzee is the master of South African literature.
