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Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (Book Review)
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- čas přidán 30. 03. 2024
- Hello everyone and welcome to my latest video and this time it's from Coetzee. You've heard of him I'm sure. If you haven't then I would highly recommend his books for you to read.
Disgrace is packed with a lot of different themes. Everything from shame, privilege, power, interracial relations, ageing between the sexes, life, death, sexuality, you name it all within a context of post-apartheid South Africa.
It's hard to like the protagonist in this book who is a university professor who has a veneer of privilege and power until one day, it's rocked but does he learn (and accept) change?
A book that is a must read for anyone as it gets you thinking long hard afterwards.
Note: there's some animal cruelty and a rape (implied) in this book.
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Helen, your description of this story brought it all back to me. It’s so brilliantly written and what an unlikable character!
Thank you! I love his writing!
All these years, of all the many books I bought, there are less than 10 fictions. Most are non-fictions (personal development). Watching your video made me realize there are so many lessons we can learn from fictions/novels.
Thank you much appreciated. I came to the same realisation. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with non-fiction. With fiction though, through story, through emotion, through thought provoking writing, it forces us to self reflect and consider our own situation, values, morals and we start to empathise by putting ourselves in other’s shoes. It’s more hard work than non fiction that just lays it all out for us. Personally, I can say that the types of books I’ve been reading in the last few years has made me come to some realisations about life too. If you can get past the wordiness of fiction, you’ll get to the kernel of inspiration within. Happy reading!
I enjoyed your review. Thanks. I’m trying to read all the booker prize books
Good luck, that's a great goal to have!
I cannot believe I have gone this long (51 years) without reading Coetzee. I do plan to pick something up by him this year. Another great review!
Please do and also get back to me about your thoughts about the book you read. 🙂
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks Do you have a recommendation for which one to start with?
I've only read a few but from the few, start with Disgrace and go from there. I'm still exploring his other books at the moment.
Thank you so much for this book review, you are amazing at summarising and providing all the different nuances to the story, though it wouldn’t be something I would normally grab, I’m intrigued to look out for it. Thank you for widening my reading circle 😍😍
Oh wow, thank you for watching Deborah and sharing your thoughts.I'm having a go at CZcams and seeing how it all works. I find I get so tongue tied in front of the camera. The editing is a long process to remove all those umms and ahs when trying to explain the book. You understand this for sure...
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks LOL absolutely 😂😂 You don't realise how many times you umm and breathe as you talk until you start editing yourself 🤣🤣I now listen out for this in bigger channels and realise that some don't actually remove the breaths but they remove the umms. I heard the umms make you look less knowledgeable on the matter, I actually believe it makes you more relatable, but it comes down to how much time I'm willing to dedicate to each video - perfectionism is a curse 😉
Keep up the great work, it gets easier with practice, like everything in life 😘😘
@Deborahafter50 all the best with your channel too!!!
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks 😍
It was a long time ago that I read that book. Probably due to my love towards dogs and animals in general all the other interesting themes that you pointed out got lost in my memory. Thank you for the great review.
Hi Helen. Over a period of several years I've read all of JM Coetzee's fiction (with the exception of his most recent collection The Pole, which is due in to our local library soon). It's been quite a while since I read Disgrace, so your review really helped to bring it back to me. I agree that his books are very readable and also fully endorse the need to be prepared for what you're getting into. I find his work really compelling despite the dark territory he often explores. As far as I can recall, every protagonist he conjures up is presented with a myriad of flaws in their character - David is no exception to this rule. With regard to your considerate warning for potential readers in relation to animal cruelty, I think it's worth mentioning that Coetzee himself is totally opposed to the mistreatment of animals and has been for many years, so there is nothing gratuitous in this department in the book. It's an example of the unflinching nature of his writing. Finally, for all I've got from his fiction, my favourite books by Coetzee are his fictionalised autobiographical trilogy, Boyhood, Youth and Summertime and I would highly recommend these, though with similar caveats and warnings that you mention in your review here. Thanks for another great video!
Thank you so much for watching and sharing your thoughts here about his writing. In particular your recommendation of his autobiography which I wasn’t aware of and will now seek out. I’m collecting his books now because I love his writing.
Trigger alerts. Interesting that there is a trigger for cruelty to animals (dogs) but for cruelty to other humans such as rape (multiple instances) and extreme violence.
Yeah you have a great point and one in which I thought the same when I was doing this video but didn't state it explicitly. It was more like a pondering, "I am providing trigger alerts for animal cruelty and yet the alerts about human violence is not stated.' Then in the same instance I thought, 'have we gotten used to this violence/do we turn a blind eye to it/where do I draw the line here?'. In the end, it hurt my head, but you're absolutely right.
I would definitely also recommend that you should consider Eben Venter and Marlene van Niekerk.
Thank you. Noted. I’m always interested in reading authors from other countries. I’ll seek their books out. (I have a GoodReads shelf where I put books that have been recommended by viewers of this channel and I’ll put them there). Thank you.
I can not watch or read about cruelty to animals😢. Very much opposed to hunting as well.
No then don’t read this book!! I found that bit hard to stomach in the book because he explained it more than the awful part of the break-in and rape (which was implied).
Me either. In fact on my Goodreads profile I have stated that any book that contains animal cruelty automatically loses stars no matter what I think of the rest of the book.
This was the last book I read last year of 70 books..brilliant...I would read his shopping lists..best for me was Youth
I haven't read this and I had to chuckle with your comment. I'll try and look out for this book so that I can add that to my collection and TBR list too. Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts.
Hi Helen there's another one called Michael K I think..truly a masterpiece..am trying to track down that Fante book you reviewed but it's not at my library..would love to read that...did you know Queen Vic Market is now doing a book section?
Try the library for the Fante book. It's where I found mine so hopefully other libraries have it too.
No, I had no idea about the Queen Vic market book section. Thanks for letting me know as it's now on the list of places to visit. I'll put a video together about that too when I get down there. Thank you for letting me know about this. It's been years since I went there so it's time for a visit!
I stumbled across it a while back.i assume it's on every time the market is open..look forward to your video..
Wow, another one of my favourite books!
Hello
Life Lessons From Books , I analyzed your CZcams channel and found that you are doing something wrong in uploading your videos and that's why your CZcams channel does not rank on the top search result.🚫
Meh. I'm not too fussed. I'm happy just uploading and sharing my love of books. Thank you though. Have a good day.
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks Thank you. Have a nice day.