Disgrace

By: J M Coetzee

Narrated by: Jack Klaff

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours, he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding.

For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship.

By the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and twice winner of the Booker Prize.

©1999 J M Coetzee (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks

delicious

As painful as the story is, it is brilliantly written by Coetzee, with a keen sense of understanding of the human condition, emotions, personal struggles.
And it is brilliantly read, in a manner that sucks the listener in to the story.

Harrowing

A harrowing tale, cuts close to the bone for those who have come through the transition in South Africa

Nope

If you have a grasp on consent and privilege, you won't be able to deal with the whiny old white man that the story centres on.

A sombre tale of choices

At first, you end up loathing the cynical protagonist, a womanizing professor, who seems to have lost the will in life. Until the moment he realises the tragedy that befalls his daughter and that some things are out of his control.

The prose is poetic and decadent, but where I find some difficulties in processing is the protagonist's outlook of separating women into the virgin or prostitute category. What we understand is that the main character has actual little understanding around him. Very intriguing listen.

Deserves the praise it's received

Everyone knows that taste in books is subjective, so I shouldn't be surprised that someone has found this book a waste of time while I found everything about it good. It's certainly not a happy story but the author carries it at a good pace and I found the picture of the various people at the South African farm fascinating and convincing. I thought the reader was possibly South African and that his various characters were OK.

Interesting and enjoyable book!

I loved this book and the narrator Jack Klaff was perfect for the story and brought all the characters to life. One of the best narrators I have listened to. There are a lot of interesting perspectives in the story and I enjoyed every chapter.

Excellent reading by Jack Klaff

This is a very difficult and provocative book. I’ve read it once before and struggled to understand it. However, reading it with Jack Klaff’s brilliant audiobook, I was absorbed much more into this searing and menacing tale. Klaff is wonderful at capturing not only the tone of Lurie and Coetzee’s narration, but also is adept at switching accents. Very pleased, nothing bad to say about this.

I hated the experience of reading it.

The protagonist disgusted me. It was well written but I found it too straight forward and plain. It was purposeful, but still didnt like it. Its meant to be hard to read, which it was, but there was at the end no point to it. I regret reading it. It caused more harm than good. But I suppose of you like literature fiction about terrible people you might enjoy this pointless book.
The performance was alright. But I was not paying much attention to it since I just wanted the book to be over almost as soon as I started.

One of my favourite books of all time

This was a re- read and I found the narration excellent - clear diction, sensitive to dialect and language, authentic, enhancing the sense of place of the book

A book for people who study books

It had me engaged but I feel a lot of its finer points were lost on me. A book most enjoyable for people who not a lot about books!

Dull

This book is incredibly dull... I've obviously missed something as this was on a must read list... nothing particularly dramatic happens to be interesting, kept waiting for a good bit that never came... don't know why all the women on this sound as if they are doped up... don't think the narrator should attempt female voices ever... eish!

Not for me!

I'm not really sure why this book has such great reviews...?? completely lacking in creativity and imagination, terrible plot and even worse abrupt ending, not to mention the horrendous accents and 'lazy' tones and detachment of the characters. The people in the story were unlikeable, unrealistic and irritating. The book confused me, there was no real direction, and many loose ends, I was hoping it would improve along the way but it just got worse. Maybe it's just me, maybe my expectations were too high. Very disappointed.