Remarkable, for two parallel scenes in particular. In the first, professor David Lurie pleads guilty to sexual harassment but is unwilling to satisfy the university ethics committee with proper expressions of remorse. In the second, David's daughter Lucy refuses to report the details of a violent attack against her. In both cases, the characters maintain their principled stands in the face of much reasonable pressure. As a reader, I got great pleasure from puzzling out the subtle nature of those personal principles and considering how far I could sympathize with them.
Remarkable also for the way it uses the story of a student affair as a metaphor for the racial complexities in the author's native South Africa. Disgrace would work beautifully in a literature class for the deft by clear way Coetzee uses literary technique.
Disgrace is a short novel with a straightforward plot, making it all the better as a focused setting for the David's casuistry. Coetzee's style is spare but lovely.
Remarkable also for the way it uses the story of a student affair as a metaphor for the racial complexities in the author's native South Africa. Disgrace would work beautifully in a literature class for the deft by clear way Coetzee uses literary technique.
Disgrace is a short novel with a straightforward plot, making it all the better as a focused setting for the David's casuistry. Coetzee's style is spare but lovely.
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