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  • Disgrace

  • By: J. M. Coetzee
  • Narrated by: Jack Klaff
  • Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (222 ratings)
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Disgrace cover art

Disgrace

By: J. M. Coetzee
Narrated by: Jack Klaff
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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.

©1999 J M Coetzee (P)2014 AudioGo Ltd. Published by Random House Audiobooks

What listeners say about Disgrace

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • S
  • 19-01-18

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.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Endlessly interesting

This is a profoundly challenging masterwork - I teach it and students are always hugely impressed (if not altogether taken in by Lurie!). It’s well handled by the reader, though female voice impersonation can - inevitably - be slightly grating.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story.

Loved the story and the reader for the most part RSA accents were a tad harsh though.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Disgrace

Brilliant text for post colonial reading, Lucy is the antithesis of a hybrid Subaltern

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

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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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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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