Disgrace

J. M. Coetzee

Winner of the 1999 Booker Prize, Ceoetzee sets the scene in South Africa and paints a dark picture of retribution in two acts. Act one begins with Professor David Lurie in mid-career aimlessly wandering through life…”the week is as featureless as a desert. There are days when he does not know what to do with himself.” The Professor fixates on one of his students, which leads to a liaison and a confrontation with administration and peers at the university. He admits his guilt under university policy, but is unwilling to offer an apology since the young woman is an adult. Academic hearings and infighting ensue – is an admission of guilt enough, or must he apologize to retain his Professorship?

Act two begins when the Professor visits his daughter Lucy, who is single and maintains a small farm and dog kennel in the Eastern Cape region. Apartheid has ended; South Africa was and remains in some turmoil as a result. Lucy's only help on the farm is Petrus, who is trying to establish his own homestead nearby. One afternoon when Lucy and her father return to the house, three young men are at the door, claiming that there has been an accident up the road and that they need to use the phone. After some questions, Lucy decides the three seem legitimate, and she opens the door – and an attack begins. They shove the Professor into the bathroom and lock it, periodically returning to beat, then burn, him. Disoriented from the beating, he doesn't know what is happening in the rest of the house, or how long the attack lasts. Lucy's screams for help go unheard – she only learns later that Petrus was not in the area that afternoon. Much of what remains of the book is a tale of the complexity of family and societal relations during a period of upheaval. Charged with emotion, we get a glimpse of one possible scenario of what can happen when “norms” of today's civilization break down.