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Disgrace
- Narrated by: Jack Klaff
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's Summary
After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours, he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding.
For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship.
By the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and twice winner of the Booker Prize.
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What listeners say about Disgrace
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 06-14-22
Engaging
As sick and as twisted as the main character of the book is, you can not help but be engaged with his story and wonder how much more sick and entitled he is going to behave. The book has a lot of dark themes but they are not themes that we are not familiar with they have just been emphasized in very dark and violating ways. The main characters' obsession with death and desire, Eros and Thanatos are probably what intrigued me the most about this book. Hard to listen to at times because of the graphic nature but very well-written book overall.
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- Sharon
- 07-27-21
Nothing likeable about this character at all
I know the book was well written, the characters well drawn and the narrator did a great job. But the main character is just an unlikeable creep. I didn't want to read about him. This from a reader that felt sympathy for the pedophile "Hiroshima Joe" when reading that book. The author wrote in such a way that you just don't care about this man, and I disliked him and his moral compass.
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- Zenzi
- 03-08-21
A very tough book
I had first heard of this book while I was in varsity and finally decided to give it a listen. I did so with a deep discomfort - gritting my book all the way through it. Very brutal, honest to a fault and deeply moving (not always in a good way). I’ll be thinking a lot about this one in days to come
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-24-19
delicious
As painful as the story is, it is brilliantly written by Coetzee, with a keen sense of understanding of the human condition, emotions, personal struggles.
And it is brilliantly read, in a manner that sucks the listener in to the story.
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- Menahem Fuchs
- 09-06-18
Harrowing
A harrowing tale, cuts close to the bone for those who have come through the transition in South Africa
1 person found this helpful
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- Marisa Peters
- 09-17-17
Nope
If you have a grasp on consent and privilege, you won't be able to deal with the whiny old white man that the story centres on.
1 person found this helpful
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- Sue
- 07-07-17
A sombre tale of choices
At first, you end up loathing the cynical protagonist, a womanizing professor, who seems to have lost the will in life. Until the moment he realises the tragedy that befalls his daughter and that some things are out of his control.
The prose is poetic and decadent, but where I find some difficulties in processing is the protagonist's outlook of separating women into the virgin or prostitute category. What we understand is that the main character has actual little understanding around him. Very intriguing listen.
4 people found this helpful
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- barjil
- 08-06-17
Deserves the praise it's received
Everyone knows that taste in books is subjective, so I shouldn't be surprised that someone has found this book a waste of time while I found everything about it good. It's certainly not a happy story but the author carries it at a good pace and I found the picture of the various people at the South African farm fascinating and convincing. I thought the reader was possibly South African and that his various characters were OK.
2 people found this helpful
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- patsy
- 04-30-16
Interesting and enjoyable book!
I loved this book and the narrator Jack Klaff was perfect for the story and brought all the characters to life. One of the best narrators I have listened to. There are a lot of interesting perspectives in the story and I enjoyed every chapter.
4 people found this helpful
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- S
- 01-19-18
Excellent reading by Jack Klaff
This is a very difficult and provocative book. I’ve read it once before and struggled to understand it. However, reading it with Jack Klaff’s brilliant audiobook, I was absorbed much more into this searing and menacing tale. Klaff is wonderful at capturing not only the tone of Lurie and Coetzee’s narration, but also is adept at switching accents. Very pleased, nothing bad to say about this.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-08-22
Disgrace
Brilliant text for post colonial reading, Lucy is the antithesis of a hybrid Subaltern
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- Pete Buckley
- 10-03-21
Moving insight into consequences and change.
A riveting insight into a changing world and how individuals come to terms with the ramifications of their actions.
The narration is an exemplary match to the timbre of the prose, drawing you into every detail.
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- FENARETI
- 07-28-20
I hated the experience of reading it.
The protagonist disgusted me. It was well written but I found it too straight forward and plain. It was purposeful, but still didnt like it. Its meant to be hard to read, which it was, but there was at the end no point to it. I regret reading it. It caused more harm than good. But I suppose of you like literature fiction about terrible people you might enjoy this pointless book.
The performance was alright. But I was not paying much attention to it since I just wanted the book to be over almost as soon as I started.
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- jesjaspers
- 04-20-19
One of my favourite books of all time
This was a re- read and I found the narration excellent - clear diction, sensitive to dialect and language, authentic, enhancing the sense of place of the book
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-09-19
A book for people who study books
It had me engaged but I feel a lot of its finer points were lost on me. A book most enjoyable for people who not a lot about books!
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- Emma Shurben
- 12-22-17
Dull
This book is incredibly dull... I've obviously missed something as this was on a must read list... nothing particularly dramatic happens to be interesting, kept waiting for a good bit that never came... don't know why all the women on this sound as if they are doped up... don't think the narrator should attempt female voices ever... eish!
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- Anonymous User
- 01-05-21
Not my cup of tea
I am sure there are plenty of people that loved this book but it just wasn't for me. I found it hard reading, evoking gritty emotions. Not the escapism I am after in a book... but as I say, I am sure plenty of people enjoy it.