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Disgrace

December 12, 2009
Book of the Day: Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee
Grade: A
First published: 1999
1-word review: Brutal
9-word review: South Africa's still struggling in the aftermath of apartheid.

A communications professor in Cape Town resigns his job after having a scandalous affair with a student. He visits his daughter on her ranch in the country, where they are viciously attacked and robbed in her home. The rest of the novel, in sparse and nearly perfect prose, deals with the aftermath of this attack, examining white guilt, police incompetence, and intellectual bankruptcy.

Coetzee is a white South African who wrote a novel that depicts black on white violent crime in his country. As you may expect, this has generated quite some controversy, despite Coetzee's bona fide anti-apartheid status. Many critics have suggested that Disgrace should be read as an allegorical tale about the inadequacies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set up in South Africa to examine the atrocities associated with apartheid. I can buy that.

Here's a photo of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.


He would undoubtedly never be allowed into Idaho.

Comments

  1. LauriAnnDecember 15, 2009 at 1:00 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LauriAnnDecember 15, 2009 at 1:01 PM

    He actually has a summer home in Sun Valley.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Erik DrydenDecember 16, 2009 at 9:47 AM

    What was in your deleted post? I hope it wasn't anything vulgar.

    End the apartheid regime in Idaho!

    ReplyDelete

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