Misery in post-apartheid land
Tulip Chowdhury explores a story of pain
Disgrace
J.M. Coetzee
Penguin Books
Disgrace by Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee is the winner of the 1999 Booker Prize. It is a tale of human and animal misery in post-apartheid South Africa. Middle aged and divorced David Lurie, a teacher of Romantic poetry, is reduced to a pathetic figure when his alleged affair with Melanie, one of his students, is revealed. Even the prostitute who used to receive him abandons him. He is humiliated by a group of students who are friends of Melanie. His colleagues start avoiding him. Disgraced and unable to face up to the scandal, he goes away to Lucy, his daughter in the Eastern Cape. Here awaits him a different life of harsh realities.
David eventually learns from life on and around Lucy's farm. The stark and beautiful South African countryside is there. Lucy's world revolves around the farm on which she lives. She is an animal lover and shelters abandoned animals. She has a vet who takes care of them. Lucy's life is dedicated to the animals that need help from her. There is Petrus, who helps Lucy with the farming. David becomes a part of the farm, selling the crops and helping Petrus run the farm. Lucy tells him, "This is the only life there is, which we share with animals."
Lucy is a lesbian who avoids other social contacts outside the farm life. This reality depresses David but he is forced to accept this part of his daughter. Petrus, he realizes, is after setting up a farm of his own. Though he works sincerely for Lucy's farm, David discovers that he has already been purchasing land of his own. Helen, Lucy's friend living with her, keeps her distance from David. Apart from farming, Lucy spends most of her time at the Animal Welfare Society. Lucy is especially attentive to the poor who come in with their animals. David is proud of this generous self of his daughter. However, there is a break-in one night. The break-in is by three Afrikanas. They kill three of Lucy's dogs and douse David with spirit and set him on fire. David manages to save himself but Lucy is raped and tied down by the men. Lucy refuses to go into filing a police report. The thugs also steal David's car, ransack the whole house, destroying David's papers and books. David realizes that though political changes are there individual misery does not change. He reflects, "One gets used to things getting harder; one ceases to be surprised that what used to be as hard can grow harder yet,"
David feels a parental responsibility towards Lucy despite her repeated reminders that she wants to be on her own. He cannot be firm with his own arguments for somewhere inside his heart rests the shame of his own disgrace. David is sometimes reduced to animal existence and ends up taking care of the dying animals. His outcry for justice to their assault at home leads him nowhere and the criminals are left at large. He is astonished to meet one the criminals at a party hosted by Petrus. Petrus refuses to comment on it, saying he knows nothing of this man being a member to the break-in. David is very unsure of where justice lies.
Eventually David returns to Cape Town, to his own home. He finds his apartment vandalized by unknown assailants. He goes to Melanie's parents and apologizes for ruining their family peace. This is a different David. Previously he had pleaded guilty to the sex offence but had held his opinion that Melanie was very much a partner to the scene. He had been arrogant, stating that Melanie had transformed him even for a few days, that he had become a servant of Eros. He goes back to trying to write his opera on Byron, something he had been working on for the last two years. However, that does not just work out. At the end David reclaims some dignity in life after he gives up on his daughter, his teaching career, his work on Byron and after learning a lesson from the dying animals. He learns that one must love without reservations, without thoughts about one's own self. The book Disgrace takes the reader town a path of metaphysical journey from the world of Romantic poetry to the harsh realities of life.
Tulip Chowdhury writes short stories and teaches.
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