Disgrace

Wuthering Bites Book Club Review at a Glance

What We Said

An expertly written, complex and layered novel, Disgrace falls short of being a book club favorite because the main character was so unappealing. David Lurie is an aging lothario who is fired from his job as a professor after having a brief affair with a student. This leads to an extended stay with his semi-estranged daughter on her remote farm where a violent incident changes their lives. An intense read with heavy issues intertwined throughout: racial tensions in post-Apartheid South Africa, sexism, the nature of beauty, youth and aging, and father-daughter relationships, are some of the topics that came up in our book club's discussion. It's a good book for discussion, but not necessarily one that we recommend for pleasure. —Steph

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In 1999 J. M. Coetzee was honored with his second Booker Prize for Disgrace. Coetzee was first honored with the Booker Prize in 1983 for Life and Times of Michael K. Coetzee was the the first writer to win the Booker twice. Coetzee's other literary awards include the CNA Prize (South Africa's premier literary award), the Prix Etranger Femina, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.

• Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II
• Stranger Shores: Literary Essays, 1986-1999
• Disgrace
• The Lives of Animals
• Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life
• Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship
• The Master of Petersburg
• Age of Iron
• A Land Apart
• Foe
• Dusklands
• Life and Times of Michael K
• In The Heart of The Country
• Waiting For The Barbarians

From The New York Times Book Review

At fifty-two Professor David Lurie is divorced, filled with desire but lacking in passion. An affair with one of his students leaves him jobless and friendless. Except for his daughter, Lucy, who works her smallholding with her neighbor, Petrus, an African farmer now on the way to a modest prosperity. David's attempts to relate to Lucy, and to a society with new racial complexities, are disrupted by an afternoon of violence that changes him and his daughter in ways he could never have foreseen. In this wry, visceral, yet strangely tender novel, Coetzee once again tells "truths [that] cut to the bone."

Reading Group Guide

The questions and discussion topics that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of JM Coetzee's Disgrace.

• Consider the nihilistic vision supported by Lurie and every other character in Disgrace, perhaps with the exception of Lucy. Is there any hope of reconciliation between different ethnicities, sexes or even members of the same family?
• After the brutal attack, the novels themes become clear. Consider the landscape of this novel and the fact that it is still apparent in Mandela's South Africa.
• Lurie, though fascinating, is not a sympathetic character. After the attack, his abiding concern is for his daughter. Is his love for Lucy his saving grace? And to what extent do you sympathise with her wish not to press charges against her attackers?
• 'There must be some niche in the system for women.' Lurie has made use of women and his own daughter is used in turn. Women are the objects of punitive violence. Discuss the unswerving pessimism in Disgrace.
• The dog imagery throughout this novel is chilling and indelible. Examine this figurative language. What does Lurie's ambivalence towards the young, injured dog at the end of the book suggest to you?
• The Coetzeen hero lives in a world of lawlessness, where social structures are in chaos and morality and decency no longer have the same currency. In Disgrace, what moral uncertainties does Coetzee make you confront?

Early in Disgrace David invites Melanie in for a simple supper of pasta with mushroom sauce. Below you'll find a couple of easy recipes that any bachelor with decent cooking skills can whip up on a moment's notice to impress a coed. More book-themed recipes

Tagliatelle With Mushroom Sauce - The dish David makes for his first evening alone with Melanie.
Fusilli with Porcini Puttanesca Sauce - Another pasta, mushroom and anchovy dish.
Sweet Potato and Yam Galette - David partakes of some tasty sweet potatoes on Lucy's farm.
Prickly Pear Jam-Earth-mama Lucy makes her own prickly pear jam. This isn't homemade, but it's a good introduction to the sweet and tangy fruit.