Disgrace by JM Coetzee

 This book flows like a river, there seems to be no deliberation in the lyrical and poetic prose of Coetzee. He writes in such a beautifully symphonic way that is like music. The entire book is centered around a professor called David Lurie.

The story of Disgrace starts with the affair of David Lurie, the protagonist, with a student(Melanie). It is a one sided kind of thing and ends up in a mess, he losing his job and his respect. He decides to spend some time with his daughter in the countryside of South Africa.
There he sees that life is quite slow and lacks purpose and even tries to make his daughter leave her farm and go to some city and find some work - he does not want her to waste her life like that. But she is adamant to live like that for her entire life.
***Spoilers from here***
Everyone near his daughter's farm is an African and their family is white; so there are certain racial tensions. He urges his daughter to not live alone like that, because it is quite dangerous and the chances of an assault are quite high. But she does not listen. Then the most disgusting and horrific thing happens - three men come in their house, steal a lot many things and rape David Lurie's daughter. This thing shocked me to the core. They douse David in methyl spirit and set him on fire, as he is locked in the bathroom he cannot save his daughter. After the assault, David's daughter becomes pregnant with one of the assaulter's child. I think that David's daughter is a bit weird, because after such a horrible assault she does not complain to the police and even agrees to marry a relative of the assaulter! That just shocked me, utterly and completely shocked me. In the end, there is a symbolism that David has given up: he has given up trying to redeem his respect after the affair, he has given up convincing his daughter to report the rape and the pregnancy, he has given up trying to convince his daughter not to marry her rapist and bear him a child. He has just given up all hope.
***End of the spoilers***

This book is therefore a deeply moving story that forces you to think on certain issues like rape and racism and giving up all hope. It forces you to think about change, in just a couple of hundred pages. It just is a masterpiece. It deserves both the Nobel and the Booker.
A must read.

10/10