''Burn, burned, burnt''. Review on Disgrace - J M Coetzee

Disgrace is about Sex, Scandal, Rape, Rage, Racism and beating hearts… It is a story with a unique plot and unimaginable situations, but identifiable at some level.

Disgrace is the story of a prolific man - a professor of romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, South Africa. The book opens with a brief introduction to David Lurie – “For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well”. He is a strong-headed man who has no qualms about having sex with a woman his daughter’s age or even younger, and he has no qualms about admitting to it either. He visits prostitutes or picks up women who are willing to come along...and later in the book he even sleeps with Bev Shaw, a woman who he thought was utterly undesirable at first. Well, let’s not make him seem like a savage beast. He is a man of passion, and he doesn’t mind being poetic about the “flashes” of desire that overtake him every now and then. But what’s wrong with that anyway? What he DOES mind, however, is to accept guilt for his actions… and he DOES mind repenting publicly for what he doesn’t consider sinful.

He goes to class and gives lectures, because that is what “provides him with a livelihood”. He has no passion for it, nor does he have any idealistic notions about being the instructor for young minds. He delivers, without any false hope of being heard. Along the way he has an affair with a student and this spells doom for him. The girl, for unknown reasons (perhaps due to pressure from her boyfriend or family) slaps charges of sexual harassment against him and he is summoned by a jury on behalf of the university to “settle” the matter. What follows is an insight into the mind of no ordinary man…this intellectual who is writing a work on Byron, gives no-nonsense answers to every question he is asked (though it is about his personal life) – he has no fear of reprisal (for he has done nothing wrong). What he abhors is the constant attempt to extract an apology out of him – he abhors the attempt at making him repent. With all the unnecessary hype surrounding his case, he becomes indifferent to it and on being asked if he regretted having done what he did, he replies “No, I was enriched by the experience”. He is a tough customer. He gracefully (and quite indifferently) accepts all charges against himself, without questioning the girl as he wants to be over with the mess because it seems like something inconsequential to him. He says he wants to exercise his freedom of speech and its counterpart, the freedom to remain silent. However, he has to resign from his job because he won’t bend. He will not give a written apology or agree to being counseled. He says he CANNOT and WILL NOT change.

He has a daughter, Lucy who lives in the interiors of the country. She is an independent, strong headed woman who lives on a farm and has sought an entirely different life style. A white woman, living in a black neighborhood on an isolated farm holding where she grows vegetables which she sells every Saturday at the nearby market. She lives the life of a nun (so to speak), actually she lives with another woman (more possibilities??). She looks after dogs and has friends who like her, are animal lovers –living a simple life, attending to animals and plants.

Now the reader is introduced to further turmoil. One is faced with the issue of racism and the issue of a woman’s rights and what she may be subjected to in that set-up as she is attacked - raped and robbed. David Lurie is faced with the dilemma of being torn for the love of his daughter on the one hand whereby he feels guilt for her rape as he couldn’t save her, and on the other, he feels rage for she won’t take a stand against the rapists. The situation is not as simple as it seems. A lot is happening in the country and it is beyond control. It has to do with the balance of power and its shift, which one notices as a stark contrast in a black neighborhood. There exists rage and hatred against a person who is white. Not only is the color of your skin important…your gender then becomes a factor in the power struggle. So, it is hatred for a white woman. Lucy draws a similarity between the rapists and tax collectors, and tries to rationalize by saying that this is a form of payment she has to make to be living where she is (this is her own interpretation). Later we come to know that this is not the first time that she has been raped.

David Lurie, is a man who has been disgraced….for no reason, other than the rape of his daughter by three men. He has been disgraced because of a human rights violation and because his daughter is not ready to punish the culprits. The disgraceful truth that one faces is that of subjugation, slavery, abasement and helplessness of being trapped in nasty situations from which there is no breaking free. This, ofcourse, is in the context of South Africa with its history of racial discrimination along with the battle for economic and political space. But it is easy to identify with this kind of upheaval as it is a pretty much a universal problem in varying degrees.

JM Coetzee has written an excellent book. The subtle text gives you a close-up on life and the multi-dimensional plot keeps you glued. This is a masterpiece as it addresses issues of critical importance and it does so, without a bias and with elegant ease. David Lurie is no hero - Coetzee has created this gray-shaded character so beautifully that emotions of sympathy and sometimes, pity are easily aroused within the reader. It is a “story as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male flesh”.