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Disgrace: Part 1 - Community Reviews back

by J.M. Coetzee
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Julian Meynell's Books
Julian Meynell's Books rated it 12 years ago
Moving and brilliant book that effectively describes acts of self and other destruction and their consequences.Writes the changes in South Africa onto the human soul, but it is more than a book about the white experience in post-apartheid South Africa. It is something better. Lovely language too.
sashangrr
sashangrr rated it 12 years ago
Easy read, terse and gripping prose, great storyline and many themes all relating to back to the title. By the end of the book you'll realise the many ways the the meaning of 'disgrace' was exposed.
Ironic Contradictions
Ironic Contradictions rated it 13 years ago
This is my first university text read, however it's one of the later ones I'm supposed to read. And I'm going to settle on a three star rating simply because I did enjoy this book to a degree. It was well written and insightful. Yet the subject matter was such that one cannot I believe love this boo...
carolwestbridge
carolwestbridge rated it 13 years ago
One of my favorite books - touching but lil bit harsh; on love but not sweet; full of emotions and overwhelming but not shallow.
viim
viim rated it 13 years ago
The first part had the loveliest off-hand turns of phrase that would make me pause to savor them for a few moments. Also a lot of rather quotable philosophizing about the nature of desire and mortality, etc. Then after he moves in with Lucy, everything turns ugly. It lacks a sense of redemption, whi...
so many books, so little time
so many books, so little time rated it 13 years ago
After finishing this book a few months ago I wanted to see if time would change my dislike of this book. It hasn't. I liked Waiting for the Barbarians and Foe but this novel comes across as entirely too clever with the characters dangling from the strings Coetzee rather showily jerks around.
Kate says
Kate says rated it 14 years ago
This is a book that I expected from a Nobelist. It's deep, it's true and engaging! Amazing. When I started reading it, I truly couldn't put it down. The constructions of the characters and their life-roads which are constantly crossing with each other and tangling and the emotional pain that I could...
The BiblioSanctum
The BiblioSanctum rated it 14 years ago
Well written, but quite a depressing read.
Meandering Em's
Meandering Em's rated it 14 years ago
Not recommended if you don't like immoral protagonists! However, it is a great picture of South Africa after Apartheid ended. How does a society function when the whole political and social system is changed? This will give you some idea of the confusion and the lost of identity for some of the w...
JulieM
JulieM rated it 15 years ago
I picked this book up because it is set in South Africa and my daughter is spending a quarter abroad in S. Africa to study marine predators (don't they have predators closer to home??). The book centers around a middle aged college professor who loses his job at a university because of an affair wi...
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