After being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York this May, former President Trump declared that what had happened to him was a “disgrace” — choosing a word that conveys the utmost disgust and outrage. Fraught and weighty, the term leaves a stain. It’s also the title of the South African author J.M. Coetzee’s eighth and perhaps most significant novel. My most lasting memory of “Disgrace,” published on July 1, 1999, is its stark and relentless brutality.
Private life is public business,” disappointed by her rural existence, unsophisticated appearance and unspoken lesbianism, David nonetheless tries to make the most of his exile. He muddles along with a book project on Lord Byron’s later years, specifically his mistress in Italy, and lends a hand to the local animal welfare shelter, overrun by dogs without homes. You might even expect the novel to depict David discovering harmony, personal and pastoral, in this new environment.