J.M. Coetzee: DISGRACE

The session began with a presentation by Maren of the blog she has been setting up to serve as our public vitrine and – possibly – a members-only communication tool: www.bookclubdeparis.blogspot.com.

We then moved on to a discussion of J.M. Coetzee’s DISGRACE. This book choice was universally applauded: apparently we all felt, from the first page, that we were in the hands of a master. Discussion ranged widely. How about using our blog’s comments function to complete and fill out the elements noted below?

• Elegant storytelling: how much information Coetzee packs into just the first sentence (“For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well.”)!
• Pragmatism and morality: this is what will happen vs. this is what should happen
• The quixotic fixations of David and Lucy, he on his erotic infatuation, she on the land
• David’s refusal to confess himself to the disciplinary committee, Lucy’s refusal to report her rape
• David’s apology, upon his return, to Melanie’s family – why not to Melanie?
• Melanie’s rape, Lucy’s rape
• David’s decision, at the end of the book, that Driepoot’s time has come: compassion or despair?

Rather than including the schedule of future meetings and book selection responsibilities, I direct you to the Agenda tab of our blog!

Phoebe