Summary of "Disgrace"

David Lurie is 52 and he is no longer as young and attractive as he used to be. His two passions in life are women and the old poets and to satisfy one of his needs he sometimes has to buy love. David works at the university in Cape Town teaching communication and the old poets. However, he has no passion for his teaching and fails to connect with his students.

One day he meets one of his 20-year-old students and invites her to his home. Before she knows it she has a sexual relationship with her teacher. David has learned the art of taking women by surprise before they can say no.

The affair costs him his job and he leaves Cape Town in disgrace to live with his daughter Lucy at her farm. The slow life at the farm is completely different from what David is used to. However, the tranquility is suddenly shattered when he and his daughter are attacked by three men. Lucy is raped. This complicates things and their lives will never be the same.

Disgrace by Coetzee won the Man Booker Prize in 1999 and this is the best book by Coetzee that I have read. He has created a great character in David Lurie, whose life has passed him by but who won't let go. He struggles to hold on to the past, until he at the farm gets a very violent wakeup. I highly recommend this novel.

Book Summaries

Fiction
Health
Psychology
Biography
Awards

Book Awards

Man Booker Prize
Nobel Prize
Pulitzer Prize