Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Disgrace

"This is my life. I am the one who has to live here. What happened to me is my business, mine alone, not yours, and if there is one right I have it is the right not to be put on trial like this, not to have to justify myself- not to you, not to anyone else."
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This was such a complex book and reading experience for me. I *loathed* David. He abused his power, raped his student, and then acted like he was morally superior when he was forced out of his university. When his daughter was assaulted he wanted to direct her experience and was completely blind to how he had engendered the same experience in his student.

He was absolutely full of the audacity. His entire persona was the embodiment of doublethink.

Coetzee used the language of violation: "forced", "exposed", "girl", "averted", "confused", in regards to the student, making it clear he also felt this was wrong. However, David's whole diatribe on the burgeoning opera was weird and I couldn't see how it aligned with the plot/text. I felt a little bit like Coetzee was trying to redeem or engender sympathy for David at the end, which I didn't like.

Despite how deeply uncomfortable much of this book made me, I could see how excellent Coetzee's writing was. I'm glad I read it, but I probably won't revisit it. Last note that I think there was less attention paid to the role of race in all these dynamics than I expected, which was sort of surprising since it was a massive part of the power dynamics/conflict at play.

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enjojolras's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

yenthemaria's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very conflicted on how many stars I should give this book. I think it tells an important story and everyone might also read something else into it or take other lessons from it which makes it a strong book, but the main character was enraging to me and it did make me want to put the book away a lot. But I guess that’s exactly what a good story does, it gives you a lot of feelings and makes you think.

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