[BOOK REVIEW] Disgrace (1999) by J. M. Coetzee 📚

The plights of white minorities of South Africa are unimportant and excluded from the narrative. When they fall victim to poverty and discrimination, it's shown on YouTube rather than on CNN or BBC. When whole families are raped, slaughtered and degraded in the most unimaginable ways (inspired by South African leaders), we can read about it on "far-right" pages on the internet rather than in the newspaper. The reason for this is that their destiny fits so badly into the politically correct description of reality. The ethno-masochistic view of history is dualistic and bipolar (evil, powerful whites against innocent, helpless non-whites), but the fate of South African Boers shows us that reality is complex and multi-polar. Therefore, their destiny must be concealed at all costs.

There are some exceptions, one of which is Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee's book Disgrace. Coetzee belongs to the South African writers who once were critical of apartheid, but has gradually become as unsure of the virtues of the "rainbow nation".

In the novel we get to follow the South African university teacher David Lurie. He's a middle-aged man with a fairly routine and dull life. Lurie is an academic with a strong interest in the romantic writers (Byron et al.), but has to spend most of his time teaching an irrelevant course on "communication." He's an aging casanova, but as age has taken its toll, he is content with visiting a prostitute once a week.

Lurie's life, however, takes an unexpected direction when he engages in a romance with one of his students, something that he justifies with his romantic ideals despite the many problematic aspects. The romance is revealed, and the old Casanova is subjected to a minor witch hunt. Coetzee's description of the nuances of the witch hunt is compelling. If Lurie will submit and show regret, nearly all of his sins can be forgiven, but Lurie refuses and thus ends up in disgrace. Ridiculed by his ex-wife and shunned by friends, he's forced to leave the university and move to his daughter, Lucy, whom he hasn't seen in a long time.

The daughter is lesbian and lives alone on a farm in the countryside. She takes care of dogs and is also active in a local animal rights organization. Lurie discovers how vulnerable she is as a single white woman in the new South Africa, something that culminates when he and his daughter are exposed to something that today belongs to everyday life in the country. The farm is invaded by a group of young, black men, Lurie is beaten and the daughter is raped.

It's however only after these attacks that one fully understands how bad the situation is. Partly through the daughter's choice to accept the unacceptable, partly through Lurie realizing who's behind it all. When he demands some form of action in response, he's dismissed as a disturber of peace and the false facade of neighborliness. Coetzee excels as a writer in those paragraphs, and I felt a growing lump of nausea in my stomach when I discover the horrible truth together with the old helpless academic step by step.

Coetzee himself is very active in animal rights issues, and it's through his growing activity in the small veterinary station that Lurie later finds a purpose. Even in the description of the poor animals, and Lurie's growing feelings for them, Coetzee's storytelling triumphs. Lurie is a man who lost everything, and it's in the solidarity with the most vulnerable, the neglected dogs, whom he finds something worthwhile. Lurie is forced to confront animal cruelty of various kinds; the manifestation of a pure hatred of dogs due to the fact that the dog is seen as a friend of the Boer.

It's by no means an easy or uncontroversial topic that Coetzee chooses to address. Describing South African whites as innocent victims of pure racism is a good way to be labeled racist. But he cleverly avoids the elements that could make the novel be branded as "dangerous". In today's climate this is something of a balancing act, a single wrong word or theme may suffice for the watchdogs to throw themselves over a writer and tear his legitimacy into pieces. Coetzee, therefore, rarely describes the race of the people in the story, but it becomes apparent gradually. The main character is by no means sympathetic, which makes it easier to take him seriously. Nor does the book end with any sort of revenge. Coetzee instead goes to lengths to make it opaque. You can interpret his message as having to accept the unacceptable, something that is hardly healthy or dignified when the unacceptable is a rape performed by neighbors whom you choose to stay with.

On a whole, this book is a strong interjection in the non-existing debate about the new South Africa. Lurie gets to see his daughter defiled, without being able to do anything about it. Coetzee describes a situation in which white people are at the mercy of others, and as a reader, I get a glimpse of a truly horrible situation. Since it's of the highest order on a purely literary level, it's a book that is appropriate to give to even your most politically correct friends. Their simplified view of South Africa will hardly remain the same. 

 @SteemSwede

Recommended documentaries on the subject:

Boer Project: South Africa a Reversed Apartheid?

Between Heaven and Hell - The True Story of Whites in South Africa