Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

J.M. Coetzee is a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and this novel received the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.  Perhaps these awards encouraged a lofty anticipation of greatness in me, but I just didn't like this novel.

The English teacher in me recognizes the presented dichotomy between the main character's attitude regarding sexuality and dominance over women as a South African white male versus his attitude about the sexuality and dominance of South African black males.  I also recognize how the title speaks to the disgrace of a man unwilling to take responsibility for his actions while also condemning the same actions in others, and the novel effectively asks the question of which of these is worse.  However, the reader in me found the writing self-indulgent, the musings of the main character imperious, the conflict unaffecting, and the women underutilized, flat even.

And while much of the story left something to be desired, the writing itself had beautiful moments.  For example, when discussing why he has failed in love so often, the main character replies, "I lack the lyrical.  I manage love too well.  Even when I burn I don't sing...".  Beautiful.

That being said, I can't help but wonder if meaning was lost in translation, or if I missed the cultural commentary as I have only a surface knowledge of South African society and politics.  Coetzee often writes to portray the involvement of the 'outsider' in the greater issues of the world around him, but in this case, the reader is presented with the hypocrisy rather than effected by it.

2/5

220 pages

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

When this book was published in 1948, South Africa was under the grip of apartheid, which was nothing less than brutal, institutionalized racism known as segregation. Against this backdrop, Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo sets out for Johannesburg from his small rural village. A fellow minister has written to him asking him to come help his sister, who is ill.  He finds that his sister has turned to prostitution, and persuades her to return to the village. 

His son Absalom also went to Johannesburg and never returned; Kumalo now sets out to find him. As he searches, he begins to see the gaping racial and economic divisions that are threatening to split his country. Eventually, he discovers that his son has spent time in a reformatory and that he has gotten a girl pregnant.  Then Absalom is arrested for the murder of Arthur Jarvis, a prominent white crusader for racial justice He has confessed to the crime, but he claims that he did not intend to murder Jarvis. With the help of friends, Kumalo obtains a lawyer for Absalom and attempts to understand what his son has become.

Arthur Jarvis’s father, James, is a wealthy land owner.  In an attempt to come to terms with his son's murder, Jarvis reads his son’s articles and speeches on social inequality and begins a radical reconsideration of his own prejudices. He and Kumalo meet for the first time by accident, and after Kumalo has recovered from his shock, he expresses sadness and regret for Jarvis’s loss. Absalom is tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death.

Kumalo is now deeply aware of how his people have lost the tribal structure that once held them together, and he returns to his village troubled by the situation. It turns out that James Jarvis has been having similar thoughts.  He becomes a benefactor of the village.

On the evening before his son’s execution, Kumalo goes into the mountains to await the appointed time in solitude. On the way, he encounters Jarvis, and the two men speak of the village and of lost sons. 


316 pages