Search - Disgrace

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a well-read friend. It did not disappoint.
The subject matter of this book is not at all easy to digest, and in another author's less capable hands it would merely be an uncomfortable shock to the reader. Coetzee's superb mastery of the written word enables you to become an unseen participant in a world that is as intriguing as it is disturbing. I was riveted by the complicated individuals that populate this book, the equally complicated and sometimes brutal environment they live in, and found myself alternately rooting for or scolding them for the decisions they made. Any writer that can affect me so with their characters is a master. But more than that, the world he creates is so real I found myself wondering what I would do, what decisions I would make... truly broadening and enlightening.

This is the first book that I have read by Coetzee and intend to seek out more of his work.

Intellectual and thought-provoking. I actually felt badly for the main character despite his egocentric, sexist manner. Well-deserving of it's Book Award.

Though well-written, this book is a bewildering look at the life of an amoral academic with whom it is fantastically difficult to empathize. He makes all the wrong moves at all the wrong times, and leads you to wonder, first, how he's managed to survive into his 50s, and second, how he's going to keep it up. The one thing I did enjoy about the book was the look into rural white South African life, which reveals just where the real differences, between the United States/Europe and the "developed" countries in Africa, lie.

Beautiful literature.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. For a very short novel (not even 250 pages long), it was surprisingly powerful. The narrator, however, was not terribly likable... but not completely hate-able either. I think more than anything what really took me by surprise was the abundance of sex and violence. Not to mention all of the poor dogs... It was a sad and horrifying book, and still very interesting. It made me more curious about South Africa as a setting, too.

I just finished this book and I found it very disturbing. I admit it has a real feel to it that is poetic at times and has you sympathizing for the main character. The ending left me feeling depressed and wishing for more redemption. A good but emotional read.