Disgrace by J M Coetzee - Sept 2020 Book Group discussion thread
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11 watchers
Sep 2020
12:01am, 21 Sep 2020
684 posts
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Peregrinator
Disgrace At one level the story asks us to view different aspects of a series of sexual events through filters of dominance and subjugation. The way Disgrace is written is very effective; very sparse in a way that shuts out any feeling of sympathy for the characters. Maybe that is a mark of a great writer: to make you read a book about people you don't feel for. There is a much more emotional humane story that could be written; about consent, acquiescence, opposition, resistance, maybe even revenge or restoration. But this isn’t it. A book written in South Africa in the aftermath of the end of apartheid must considered to be about more than just the characters it contains - that it is intended to be at some level allegorical about the South African state and where was going. The white South Africans excluded by a repulsive history and clinging to an irrelevant culture, unaltered by the Truth and Reconciliation process, and wanting to return to how things were. Finally left to do what - be a railing anachronism, leave for Europe, escape to a somewhat safer urban life, or submerge into a new culture? As an allegory it seems to end abruptly and not say much about the future. With hindsight we know that the country didn't descended into a bloodbath, and avoided the financial car-crash that developed in Zimbabwe. It is still a democracy. But equally there are still many black South Africans living in slums and townships, being bussed into the cities, excluded now by economic laws rather than State ones. The vast majority of blacks own nothing in the new state, and corruption drains capital that otherwise would build a new nation. One element that the story misses is how much apartheid has been "baked into" the new South Africa. Perhaps fortunately, authors don't have to be prophets or finance ministers. But they can write books that make you think, like this one. |
Sep 2020
6:54am, 21 Sep 2020
40,840 posts
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LindsD
Thank you
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Sep 2020
1:21pm, 21 Sep 2020
20,292 posts
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Columba
And am I right in thinking that South Aftrica is the country with the highest murder rate in the world?
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Sep 2020
2:11pm, 21 Sep 2020
17,594 posts
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Bazoaxe
Not sure but it is high. My MiL has a different carer yesterday who was South African but had moved here for uni as it is not safe in SA especially for a single female. Her brother and parents stents are following in November when her brother finishes school. I got the impression they are British but moved out there when she was very young and are now returning. |
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Sep 2020
7:13pm, 21 Sep 2020
687 posts
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Peregrinator
en.wikipedia.org suggests it's about tenth, with half the rate of El Salvador. But many factors affect this, eg.differences in health care. |
Oct 2020
4:18pm, 4 Oct 2020
19,195 posts
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Serendippily
I’ve read this book before, a decade ago. I found it bleak and discordant. The only plot, as such, that things fall apart, and we cling on regardless, for reasons unknown, trapped by age, history, gender, the crimes of our past and the crimes of our forbears. I wasn’t much looking forward to the reread and it is a grim little book, very light on laughs. It’s studious: I could envisage essay topics on men vs women, city vs country, quality of felt experience vs imagination, youth vs age. I suspect this kind of analysis would enrich any reading. What struck me this time I think was the shame and disgrace are really reserved for the weak - that it is the compromised, the abused, the powerless, who are ashamed, because they have to act in ways and make choices based on their place in the hierarchy. If they were powerful they would have no need of shame. I found that a strong rationale for a book. David never gets to understand any women and has no male friends either. We get to see him blindsided by his desire - failing to distinguish or give thought to whether his partners want him or not: it is enough simply that his desires are not suppressed. When the power balances changes, living in Lucy’s house, with no recourse to state protection, only then he has to learn what it is to try to make a life under the yoke of others And only when learning to help euthanise dogs died he learn to be there in the moment and show love. And puts the dog he formed a relationship with down because it had no future. Like I say, cheerful little book I gave it an 8 because it packed a punch, all the dialogue was well observed and it was rather beautifully written, but it gave me such little pleasure to read it |
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Oct 2020
4:21pm, 4 Oct 2020
41,295 posts
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LindsD
Thank you. I know what you mean.
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Oct 2020
4:27pm, 4 Oct 2020
19,196 posts
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Serendippily
I preferred the book which ends with a dog bring out down out of kindness, because this is no place for the weak, than the book which started with someone eating a dog. Book choices are a hard world for a dog this year
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Oct 2020
4:27pm, 4 Oct 2020
19,197 posts
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Serendippily
*being put* tsk on phone
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Oct 2020
4:27pm, 4 Oct 2020
41,297 posts
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LindsD
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