Reviews

• この作品自体が、一編の詩である

  まず持って英語が素晴らしい。これほど平易な表現でこれほど人の複雑な感情が伝えられるのかと、驚嘆するほかない。これ一編がひとつの詩であると考えて良い。効果的な英語表現に興味のある人は、この作品から相当学べるはずだ。作品自体も、人にとっての性、生の意味を相当深いところで捉えていると思う。主人公のデヴィッドと、娘のルーシーはある意味相似形で、お互いの中に自分を見ているのだと考えられるが、そこにポストアパルトヘイトの南アフリカにおける社会的現実がオーヴァーラップする。出来れば、原文の英語で読んで欲しい秀作である。

• 感動した！

  間違いなく近年読んだ小説の中でベストだ。ロリータ以来の衝撃と言って良い(H16.5.16)。舞台は南アフリカ。離婚した壮年文学教授がこうむる、屈辱的な事件の数々。そのエロチックな事件を主軸に、教授の研究対象であるバイロンの恋愛事件のエピソードがその流れを彩って行く。野犬の叫び声と屠殺されて運ばれる犬の足のイメージが強烈に作品のバックグラウンドを形成して、素晴らしい。もし私がこれをドラマ化するとすれば、開幕前に巨大な犬のシルエットを前面に映し出し、野犬の叫び声を流して効果的に舞台を演出したい。 英語も極めて平易で読みやすく、後世に残る傑作として特に「中年男性」にお勧めしたい（H20.4.10）。

• 日本人の肌は金持ち色

  Your skin looks rich. これが10年前初めて私が南アフリカを訪れたときに、一番つらかった言葉だ。そして、この本を読んでいて、その当時のことを如実に思いだした。 確認しておけば、私の両親は日本人で、日本国内でこそ「日本人に見えない」と言われるが、アフリカに行けば東洋人または東南アジア人と通用する外見だ。 当時の私はバブルの余韻残る日本社会の中ではとても高給取りとはいえないパートタイマー。南アフリカのダーバンでみやげ物を売る黒人の兄ちゃんに「金もってないから買いたくても買えない」と言ったのだが、返答は上の言葉だった。 そして、その数日後、私はジョハネスバーグで強盗に遭って８０００円ほどの現金と約２０００円の腕時計を奪われることになる。作中のルーシーと同じ種類の経験とはいえないかもしれないが、この小説を読んでいると私の当時の苦しい気持ちを思い返さずにおれなかった。 南アフリカは先進国と途上国を内包した国だ。４０００万人以上の国民の大半は肌の色で経済力を推し量ることができ富と貧が偏在し、殺人とレイプが多発する。その一方で、世界で初めて心臓移植手術を行い、核兵器を生産した上で全廃した稀有な国だ。世界の富の象徴ともいえる金とダイアモンドを世界で一番産出しながら、成人の２割以上がHIVに感染している。その一方でムベキ大統領は「エイズとHIVウィルスは因果関係がない」と言ったりする。医療予算の急増を気にするがゆえに…。 作品中、冒頭で主人公が女を抱くケープタウンのグリーンポイントは日本で言えば横浜の山下公園周辺と芦屋の雰囲気をまぜこぜにした感じだろうか。ケープタウン大学は日本ではあまり知られていないが、学術水準には定評があり、世界初の心臓移植手術を行ったのは同大学の付属病院だ。 作中では南アフリカ社会の頂点に立つ人物が、底辺からの動きにいかに対応しなければいけないかが描かれる。新体制発足後はあまり日本で報道されなくなった南アフリカ社会の現実を伝える好著といえる。

• 南アフリカで初老の白人男性であるということ

  52歳､ ２回の離婚歴のある大学教授デーヴ ィッドは、自分のクラスの女子学生を誘惑。 何度かベッドを共にし、いつも通りの恋愛ゲ ームを楽しむはずが、セクハラで訴えられる 。「自分の美意識にしたがって生きるのが自 分の生き方」と考えるデーヴィッドは、大学 の査問会で“反省すること”を拒否。職を捨 て、娘の住む西ケープの農場に隠遁する。ケ ープタウンとはまったく違う田舎の農場生活 で出会う人々や事件を通して、デーヴィッド は自分の恋愛とセックス観、娘とのつながり 、南アフリカで白人であることの意味などを 見直し始める。 後半のテーマは重たいけれど、私には遠い 国である南アフリカについて考えさせられる 好著だった。

• ルポ程度

  ハンモックで揺られながら対岸の火事を見ている感じ。漁色の連続は受け入れ難い。本人含め共感出来る人物一人としていない。人生を問うているにしては底が浅すぎる。全く感激しなかった。野坂氏や団鬼六氏の方が勝っている。唯一優れていたのは訳者さんでしょう。

• 好きなことで身を滅ぼす

  アパルトヘイトが廃止となったとは言え、根深い人種問題がすぐに解決する訳 ではなく、差別意識が解消するものでもない南アフリカを舞台にした重苦しい 小説です。 二度の離婚歴のある５２才の大学の准教授 David Lurie は、週一度の買春では 性欲が満たされないのか、好みの教え子と関係をもちセクハラで訴えられます。 大学を去らざるを得なくなり、片田舎で農作をやっている娘 Lucy の下へ身を 寄せ不本意な生活を始めます。 ある日、Lucy の家は黒人三人組の強盗に襲われ彼女は凌辱の目に遭い、有ろう 事か妊娠してしまいます。警察への訴えや土地を離れることなど父親の説得を 退け、その土地に留まり根付いて生き抜こうとする娘と父親との対立。その背後 には毒にも薬にもなる重婚者 Petrus の存在があり、彼が父娘の運命に関わって いますが、その言動が釈然とせず不可解です。 南アフリカの社会情勢や風土が分からないこともあり読み落としが多々あるので しょう、本書の意図するところが今一つ掴めかねます。文章は切り詰めたような 独特なスタイルで、滅多に目にしない単語などが出現し学習にはなりました。

• Disgrace is an example of how a novel can confront complex topics without being an “issues” kind of book, and tackles difficult personal issues with great compassion. Lurie is not given to us a conventionally likeable character, but for all his flaws he has an underlying decency. His daughter is a brilliant and fascinating character, and one of the great things about the novel is how all the characters have a certain unpredictability about them. An incredibly moving ending as well.

• Woooow la historia, está muy bueno <3

• Having recently read J.C. Kannemeyer's authorized biography J. M. Coetzee: A Life in Writing; I was inspired to re-read some of this author's books. Disgrace is set partly in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, around Salem, an area my paternal ancestors settled so I've always had a soft spot for this book. It is not an easy book to read because it is extremely challenging and thought provoking dealing with issues such as sexuality and aging, rape, post-apartheid life in South Africa during the 1990s, the abuse of power, redemption and how the past influences the present. The writing is fluent and lyrical executed with clinical​ precision by a master craftsman. This book won the Booker Prize in 1990; the second time J.M. Coetzee was awarded the prize; he previously won it in 1983 for Life and Times of Michael K.

• For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well. Punctually at two p.m. he presses the buzzer at the entrance to Windsor Mansions, speaks his name, and enters. He goes straight to the bedroom, and undresses. Soraya emerges from the bathroom, drops her robe, slides into bed beside him. 'Have you missed me?' she asks. 'I miss you all the time,' He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing. He is mildly smitten with her. It is no great matter: barely a term passes when he does not fall for one or other of his charges. Cape Town: a city prodigal of beauty, of beauties. Does she know he has an eye on her? Probably. Women are sensitive to the weight of the desiring gaze. He is tall and wiry; he has a thin goatee and an ear-ring; he wears a black leather jacket and black leather trousers. He is older than most students; he looks like trouble. 'So you are the professor,' he says.'Melanie has told me about you.' 'Indeed. And what has she told you?’ ‘That you …. her.' 'Professor, I wonder if you can help us. Melanie has been such a good student, and now she says she is going to give it all up. It has come as a terrible shock to us. It seems such a waste, to spend three years at university and do so well, and then drop out before the end. I wonder Professor, can you have a chat with her, talk some sense into her?' 'We are talking about a complaint by Ms Melanie Isaacs.’ She has never liked him; she regards him as a hangover from the past. 'There is a query about Ms Isaacs's attendance. According to her she has attended only two classes in the past month. She also says she missed the midterm test. Yet according to your records, her attendance is unblemished and she has a mark of seventy for the mid-term.’ ‘Even if you are what you say, a moral dinosaur, there is a curiosity to hear the dinosaur speak. I for one am curious. What is your case? Let us hear it.' He hesitates. Does she really want him to trot out more of his intimacies? 'My case rests on the rights of desire,' he says. 'On the god who makes even the small birds quiver.’ ************ This is the second Booker Prize win in 1999 by J M Coetzee, the 2003 Nobel Prize laureate. It is a gripping tale of a 52 year old professor David, now twice divorced, who finds his favorite prostitute out of the business and approaches an undergraduate student 30 years younger than himself. He struggles in his English poetry class and its bored students, while his mind wanders to Melanie in the room. She is wary of him although they have already had sex. The setting is in Cape Town South Africa at the school Coetzee taught at for 15 years. There is no hint this was his part of his personal experience. He begins to stalk her around the campus and home. She skips class and he falsifies records to show attendance. Her boyfriend comes to his home and classroom as a menacing presence. She arrives at his house and asks for a place to stay. Although he is reluctant due to the appearances and possible consequences to his professorship he can’t help himself but to agree. Shortly after he learns that Melanie is withdrawing from college and receives a phone call from her father. Soon the word gets out among students, staff, faculty and family. Refusing to repent he’s dismissed and left to fend for himself. He visits his daughter Lucy who is a self sufficient farmer in Eastern Cape. He volunteers at an animal welfare clinic and takes a job at their neighbor Petrus’s farm. A home invasion takes place and he is powerless to affect the outcome. Earlier he had argued that the nature of man was uncontrollable. A merciless scene of violence ensues unsuitable to describe. He reflects on the pitiless conditions of post-apartheid South Africa and considers them lucky to be alive. After the attack David begins to suspect that Petrus, the small landholder who lives in a former stable and works for Lucy was somehow involved. Ironically his daughter’s violation is analogous to his own earlier actions, and she wants no part of the retribution although grieviously harmed. David seems unaware of the reversal in roles. He meets one of the predators at party of Petrus. Coetzee miraculously carries this plot forward with simple prose but profound meaning. Lucy’s refusal to report details of the assault is met with incredulity by David yet she stands firm; she is the one who has to live there and no longer a child. Improbably David returns and meets with Melanie’s father to explain himself and is invited to a family dinner. Back in Cape Town his home has been ransacked and anything of value removed. Melanie’s father advised that God has plan for him. He resumes writing his operetta libretto about Byron in Italy, but revises it from a male conquest to a middle aged memoir of the woman he sailed off to Greece to escape. He works on the piano to invent a score but abandons it for an African banjo. Attending a drama Melanie is playing in he is followed by her boyfriend again. In a visit to Lucy he finds she plans keep the child of her rapist, related to Petrus. A question remains how it will be resolved. Although in the beginning this is akin to Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ describing a sexual obsession, but without the aspect of pedophilia, it evolves into something different. It’s about unequal power relationships and a journey to understand life in post apartheid Africa. There’s an excellent 2008 movie with John Malkovich that follows the storyline and dialogue faithfully. Coetzee is absolutely brilliant in this novel. He was criticized by various pundits of literature in South Africa and the West for being a throwback to apartheid opinions in its depiction of the indigenous people but that’s beyond the realm of his art.

• Obra fenomenal. Escrita forte e sensível. Sabia que Coetzee era bom mas achei maravilhoso. No original é sempre melhor. África do Sul. Prazer.

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