From the first moment I picked up this book I found it contained something inexplicable between the lines. You know the complexity of this book is disparaged with the simplicity of the synopsis at the back cover. Simply put, as somebody at the meeting said this book seemed to elongate a story short enough for 10 minute talk to huge and painstaking story of about 220 pages. I agree to the person but I still believe the profound meaning and complicity have this book worth reading once or twice.

Perhaps it is really simple to judge David Lurie as a middle-aged, secular westerner who found ‘Sex’ as a problem of his life and suffered severely from his womanizing instinct, raised naturally by the women of his personal history, but it is hard to sum up the geopolitical and religious meanings of his suffering, humility and disgrace leading him to a start-over.

Maybe you’re going to query what I mean with this word ‘religious’, because Lurie seemed not to have to do with any kind of religion in his life. Far from the geopolitical apparition of Afrikaaners in South Africa in Lurie’s vivid life, his life didn’t seem to do with anything religious. Perhaps, he could’ve attended a church in youth, but his latest life didn’t make any kind of junction with religious course. Actually the reason why this ‘religious’ idea popped up in my brain while we met was foolishly the name Lurie and Isaacs reminded me of some Jewish background. As a matter of fact, Lurie is a quite popular family name among Jews. I was not prejudiced anymore to consider Coetzee showed any form of Jewish involvement when I went through lots of chapters of ‘Disgrace’ but still had an idea that this book may have some similarity in plot with the stories of Bilble.

Actually I found a stereotypical plot easily found in any stories of The Bible - sin, perdition, disgrace or punishment, any form of changes in life(Actually we call it repentance, but I’m not sure it goes the same in the plot of this book, ‘Disgrace’, but still it contains some meaning.) and salvation.

Lurie was full of ‘secret pride’ which couldn’t be thrown away. He didn’t care other people’s judgment on his affair with young and attracting pupil Melanie. His intention was only on nourishing his own desire of flesh. Simple is that. The hearing at the disciplinary committee was, therefore, nothing to a stubborn man with ‘secret pride’ who simply ignored his folk’s demand to take what he was told to do at the disciplinary committee. However, this incidence was nothing but his perdition which led him to the small holding of Lucy, his daughter, in the rural area. There was the real disgrace of his life awaiting him. Attack and rape… He was assaulted and burned. His daughter was raped and accepted what seemed outrageous enough not cease to irritate even readers – not biding for the police power of the city but accepting so called protection which really meant taking of her own right on her small holdings and being a mistress of the tribal man, Petrus, who had been considered as one of inferiors in the old days. However, his life changed after that incident, which could be called disgrace or punishment as whatever you like, and in the end it reached the start over of his life even though which was not like the former life.

Maybe you see the point here. Considering Lurie is a kind of apparition of Afrikaaners, we can see the stereotypical plot of The Bible here - sin, disgrace, regret or repentance and salvation(new start). And one thing more : The irritating nature of this book has abundant precedences in the books of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, etc. Summing up these two points, in my opinion, this book could be interpreted with the perspective of the prophetic writings of The Bible.

I know it would sound funny. But I suppose you may not find it weird anymore when we consider that prophets were people who should tell the inconvenient truth - inconvenient enough to provoke other people to hate them and want to take their lives. From The Bible, you can find lots of examples like this book. If you can’t find them irritating you, it’s because you are alienating yourself from the audiences of the prophets in respect of time disparagement and ethnical differences. Normal folks in the biblical age were vexed and bugged by the prophets constantly. Maybe Socreates could be considered as one of the people who acted like prophets even though he was a Greek and not bearing even a drop of Jewish blood in his vein. You remember Socrates mentioned himself as a fly of Athens to wake up people who fell into the sleep of ignorance. ‘Disgrace’ provokes people who read it when we think of the plot, no matter what Coetzee really intended to do with this book.

On the new start or salvation of South Africa, I need to explain one thing I remember from the last meeting. We need to focus on the point that Lurie was working on an opera on Byron’s life in Italy, even though it was not obvious whether he could finish it up. I guess this means the desire and aspiration, for fame, of Afrikaaners and of South Africa as a ethnically mingled state. Recently, South Africa is getting more light from its economical and political improvements achieved in last 10 years, after South Africa turned down the old transgressions, like apartheid, as Lurie killed the crippled dog. Maybe that was the moment of humility when his ‘secretive pride’ faded away but also the moment of salvation for Lurie to have a chance to start all over again.

One thing more to think about... Maybe somebody may ask on what quality Melanie was so different from other women in his former life, even she made it possible to ruin his life with a mere fling.

I think she was not that different from other women. Maybe it was just timing or natural course to undo his reputation like an implementation by the author to make story flow. As we know Lurie was nothing but the avartar of desire for flesh. This desire can be substituted by instinct to conquer and dominate when Lurie is a representative of Afrikaaners or westerners of good old days. His desire and life were already combined as a sequel of iniquities. Just he didn’t understand and care for the ethical meaning of his life. From this view point, incidence with Melanie was just the continuation of his desire driven life and some kind of passage to Lurie's disgrace. Anyway, as you well know, South Africa was condemned by the international society for apartheid and Lurie, a secretly proud representative of Afikaaners, was standing at the hearing, ignoring what other people concerned as South Africa didn’t care for its own reputation in the reign of Afrikaaners. Thus I suppose disgrace is not always something about humiliation. Someone who went through disgrace and had trouble big-time has chance to clench a hope, even just a little bit of it, which means a fresh start and the chance for redemption exists always on the flipside like that Janus has angry face on one side but smily face on the other side.