Amazon.co.uk
Emerging from the dissident calibrations of literary voices joined together in the culture of protest against the apartheid regime, the distinctive writing of novelist, critic and academic J M Coetzee has become identified as one of the most finely tuned among contemporary Southern African writers. From the local recognition accorded his earliest novel Dusklands to the international acclaim with which his rewriting of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe story, Foe was received, Coetzee has dedicated himself to transforming South African writing from a blunt weapon of struggle to a delicate and incisive instrument of reflective liberation.

Disgrace takes as its complex central character 52-year-old English professor David Lurie whose preoccupation with Romantic poetry--and romancing his students--threatens to turn him into a "a moral dinosaur". Called to account by the University for a passionate but brief affair with a student who is ambivalent about his embraces, David refuses to apologise, drawing on poetry before what he regards as political correctness in his claim that his "case rests on the rights of desire." Seeking refuge with his quietly progressive daughter Lucie on her isolated small holding, David finds that the violent dilemmas of the new South Africa are inescapable when the tentative emotional truce between errant father and daughter is ripped apart by a traumatic event that forces Lucie to an appalling disgrace. Pitching the moral code of political correctness against the values of Romantic poetry in its evocation of personal relationships, this novel is skillful--almost cunning--in its exploration of David's refusal to be accountable and his daughter's determination to make her entire life a process of accountability. Their personal dilemmas cast increasingly foreshortened shadows against the rising concerns of the emancipated community, and become a subtle metaphor for the historical unaccountability of one culture to another.

The ecstatic critical reception with which Disgrace has been received has insisted that its excellence lies in its ability to encompass the universality of the human condition. Nothing could be farther from the truth, or do the novel--and its author--a greater disservice. The real brilliance of this stylish book lies in its ability to capture and render accountable--without preaching--the specific universality of the condition of whiteness and white consciousness. Disgrace is foremost a confrontation with history that few writers would have the resources to sustain. Coetzee's vision is unforgiving--but not bleak. Against the self-piteous complaints of all declining cultures and communities who bemoan the loss of privileges that were never theirs to take, Coetzee's vision of an unredeemed white consciousness holds out--to those who reach towards an understanding of their position in history by starting again, with nothing--the possibility of "a moderate bliss." --Rachel Holmes

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I found the book really worthreading. The language isn't hard to follow and the story gives you many points to think over and over.

Even before this book was registered it found several interested readers.
So I think about offering it as a ray.

Here is the list of readers:
1. Muffin77 Dresden
2. Lesenmachtfroh Nürnberg
3. ladyliberty Coburg <- the book rests here right now
4. + Ladyliberties Tochter (Nick mir leider gerade unbekannt)
as last station to
toshokanin Dresden

RELEASE NOTES:

The book goes to Muffin77

was handed over to me yesterday. thanks a lot ;)

I read the book in two sessions - it was my first book by coetzee and i must admit, i like his style. i like the stories within a story, the reality and humanity in his words, the opposing characters...
as soon as there are more readers on the list the book can travel on.

RELEASE NOTES:

finally sent on today - sorry for the delay...

Gut angekommen. Muss auf die Ferien warten um gelesen zu werden. Danke für den Ring und fürs Schicken.

This book was a real surprise. Expecting nothing special I found a story discribing people's lifes in a very sensitive way. I can approve Paul Bailey's (Independent) comment: "Disgrace is a subtle, multilayered story, as much concerned with politics as it is with the itch of male flesh. Coetzee's prose is chaste and lyrical - it is a relief to encounter writing as quietly stylish as this"

Befindet sich zwecks Weitergabe an Lady-Liberty zur Zeit bei mir. Wenn es klappt, wandert es übermorgen beim Meetup in Bamberg weiter.

Ist bei mir angekommen - vielen Dank an Zugleser für den Transfer!

Finally I finished this book - sorry for the delay, RikkiDD!

Well, it is one of these books, which are not written for entertainment or easy reading during a sunny afternoon. It was my first experience with J.M. Coetzee - I liked his way of expressing a lot in small sentences although it was pretty hard stuff. Written in and about another part of the world, sometime surprisingly familiar, sometimes very strange. There is an open end, no solution, no satisfaciton, just destruction and a kind of hopelessness.

Shopgirl-NY152 is living abroad now, so I'll send this book back to RikkiDD. Thanks for your patience and this interesting experience.

Read for the 1-year-1-book-challenge: South Africa

The book arrived yesterday. Thank you!

Well, I didn't read it. I remember that I was very interested in reading it when the book was first published. I remember I was already quite undecided when RikkiDD offered this BookRay, so she put me on the end. That was clearly a mistake because over the last two years I must have lost my interest entirely. I read the first twenty pages but it didn't catch me. I don't want to read it now and I don't want this book to lay on my MountTBR for the next month (or maybe years) to come, so I'll pass it on unread.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

reserviert für die GEWA (Grenzüberschreitenden Gewerbeausstellung Konstanz-Kreuzlingen / http://www.gewa-messe.com/wissenschaft)

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Am Stand 'Wissenschaft, Bildung und Innovation' im Bookcrossing-Regal. Herzlichen Dank für die Buchspende! :-)

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Übrig geblieben von der GEWA...
Wird heute oder morgen auf dem großen Flohmarktgelände freigelassen.

Liebe/r Finder/in,

willkommen auf bookcrossing.com! Schön, dass du einen Eintrag für das Buch machen willst. Dies geht auch ganz anonym und ohne Anmeldung.
Du kannst das Buch lesen und dann wieder frei lassen, damit es seine Reise um die Welt fortsetzen kann - ganz wie du willst ;-)
Hilfe findest du auch im deutschsprachigen Forum und auf der deutschen Support-Seite, die kann dir sicher bei den ersten Schritten helfen.

Zweifel bei der Anmeldung? Die Webseite ist Spam-frei, Email-Adressen und sonstige persönlichen Angaben bleiben absolut geheim - niemand
erfährt etwas außer deinem Nicknamen!
Ich hoffe, du findest die Idee einer "weltweiten Bibliothek" ebenso spannend wie ich!

Und nun viel Spaß mit dem Buch und bei Bookcrossing!

See-Stern