Disgrace
A BBC Radio 4 Good Read
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Disgrace
Narrated by:
Jack Klaff
Buy Now for $21.99
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Narrated by:
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Jack Klaff
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By:
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J.M. Coetzee
About this listen
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.
By the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and twice winner of the Booker Prize.
Critic Reviews
What is remarkable about Coetzee’s vision as a novelist is that it remains intensely human, rooted in common experience and replete with failure, doubt and frustration
A masterpiece
Exhilarating... One of the best novelists alive
Coetzee captures with appalling skill the white dilemma in South Africa (Justin Cartwright)
Disgrace explores the furthest reaches of what it means to be human; it is at the frontier of world literature (Geoff Dyer)
A great novel by one of the finest authors writing in the English language today (Russel Celyn Jones)
Disgrace is a defining novel of our time, its apparently simple lyricism belying a grave incomprehension that threatens to sever our world in two. There is an answer, but it is very hard and painful to come to
A searing book, and though it is often called spare, it is delightfully intricate, containing a tissue of literary allusions that are brilliantly used (John Mullan, professor of English and Booker of Bookers Judge)
Told with searing emotional and intellectual honesty, this beautifully written novel is as much a meditation on parenthood, old age and the pursuit of love and beauty as it is a snapshot of a country in turmoil
Such dilemmas are so obviously at the heart of South African politics that the allegorical parallels are inescapable...the issues raised, such as the demands of justice versus the need for reconciliation, are timeless
Passing through life
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Wonderfully written
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This is a quick review about the Audio book version of disgrace.
First of all - absolutely phenomenal book. I can see why it’s so well regarded. I’m proud to have such an amazing author living in Australia. Listening to it, the levels of introversion, introspection and dark analysis of the characters puts it on the same plane, if not quite the same level, as Nabokov.
The Action is about a professor, David Lowry; 52, twice divorcee at a metropolitan university. He has an affair with a 19 year old student, that pushes to the very edge of what is social and morally acceptable. He is ousted by the university following it. He accepts responsibility for, but refuses to apologise for his actions. He is stubborn. He moves ion with his homosexual daughter who lives in the country, in the south cape. Her life is very different to his. He is a professor of literature, writing a work about Byron that permeates the book, and becomes a metaphor for his relationship with his daughter. She is living off the land, a free spirit, looking after stray dogs with a farmer’s market stall.
David does not initially like to dogs or the country life but warms to them. Something tragic I will not spoil occurs in the second act, and this really colours the rest of the book.
The dogs, and the book David is working on take on metaphorical qualities as they become surrogates for the protagonists, David and his daughter. Both fall into disgrace, in various guises of the word.
In the background are overtones of post-apartheid South Africa. Without ever being ‘woke’ or painful to listen to, the book engages in a really difficult (in the sense of hard to listen to, not hard to process) dialectic about what Is right for the citizens of that country in the modern era. This analysis alone made me want to learn more about South Africa, a country I am woefully ignorant of. Disgrace switches you on to these issues without treating the listener as a fool; or ramming them down your throat. It is not idealistic. It is compelling.
The story itself has such a rhythm to it, that despite not being full of high action it was almost impossible to put down. It was an absolute page turner. I did not want to stop listening.
Do not be put off by the odd title or the odd cover graphic. It stat stagnating in my audible library for about half a year because of these which is a real shame. Both of them belie the quality of the content, and will become more meaningful as you continue.
Overall, its very dark; it’s prescient. It has wonderful layers ion introversion, both about what the characters are going through, and an obvious love of literature that penetrates the novel. If you loved John William’s stoner, or even Ravelstien, you will like this - its part campus novel, part exploration of two character, and part history of South Africa all entwined. It is a wonderful book.
Finally - the narration in the audiobook version was excellent. It conveys the South African accents wonderfully, and each individual is distinct but compelling.
Best audiobook I listened to in 2022.
Best Audiobook of the Year, by a mile
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Beautifully written and read
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Great story, great narrator
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