David Lurie, rozvedený profesor v strednom veku, učí na univerzite v Kapskom meste anglických romantických básnikov a popritom si užíva život s krásnymi ženami. Ženy sú pre neho základom jeho života, ich krása, podľa neho, nepatrí len im, ale celému svetu, a ich povinnosťou je ich krásu zdieľať a rozdávať.
With his height, his good bones, his olive skin, his flowing hair, he could always count on a degree of magnetism. If he looked at a woman in a certain way, with certain intent, she would return his look, he could rely on that. That was how he lived; for years, for decades, that was the backbone of his life.
Jeho spôsob života mu vyhovuje a nemieni na ňom nič meniť až kým jedna jeho aférka so študentkou čiernej pleti nevyjde najavo. Profesor Lurie je ochotný uznať svoju vinu a aj tak urobí, ale ľudia od neho požadujú, aby sa kajal verejne, aby zahral dramatický akt verejnej ľútosti („It reminds me too much of Mao's China. Recantation, self-criticism, public apology. I'm old-fashioned, I would prefer simply to be put against a wall and shot. Have done with it."), čo však odmietne a tak rezignuje na svoje miesto a odíde na odľahlú, izolovanú farmu svojej dcéry Lucy. Prirodzený rytmus vidieckeho života na farme ho zo začiatku upokojí a zdá sa, že jeho život sa ukľudnil. Napriek tomu však on chce ostať sám sebou, cynický postarší muž so skeptickým pohľadom na svet a ľudskú lásku, ale brutálny útok troch černochov, ktorí Lucy znásilnia a jeho polejú benzínom a zapália, ho prinúti padnúť tak hlboko, ako je to len možné, a odhalí všetky problémy jeho života, duše a jeho vzťahu s dcérou a ženami vôbec.
A risk to own anything: a car, a pair of shoes, a packet of cigarettes. Not enough to go around, not enough cars, shoes, cigarettes. Too many people, too few things. What there is must go into circulation, so that everyone can have a chance to be happy for a day. That is the theory; hold to the theory and to the comforts of theory. Not human evil, just a vast circulatory system, to whose workings pity and terror are irrelevant. That is how one must see life in the country: in its schematic aspect. Otherwise one could go mad. Cars; shoes; women too. There must be some niche in the system for women and what happens to them.
Po útoku sa obaja snažia vrátiť sa do života a do starých koľají ("...rituals make things easier..."), ale ich pohľad na svet už nikdy nebude taký ako predtým. Profesor Lurie prišiel na farmu, aby sa dal dokopy a nabral novú energiu, ale dosiahol pravý opak: „This is not what he came for - to be stuck in the back of beyond, warding off demons, nursing his daughter, attending to a dying enterprise. If he came for anything, it was to gather himself, gather his forces." Práve v tom je Coetzeeho majstrovstvo: v jeho schopnosti pomalým dejom a úvahami ukázať dušu človeka, ktorú obnaží krutosť a ktorá sa snaží nájsť v sebe silu pochopiť svet okolo seba. Coetzeeho hrdinovia zažívajú extrémne situácie, ktoré ich nútia hľadať odpoveď na otázku, čo to znamená byť človekom. Nie je to však len príbeh o zúfalstve a beznádeji, je to aj o vzťahu otca a dcéry, o smrti, o láske k zvieratám a o priateľstve, ktoré bývalý profesor začína chápať až teraz:
„Nonsense!" says Bill Shaw. „What else are friends for? You would have done the same."
Spoken without irony, the words stay with him and will not go away. Bill Shaw believes that if he, Bill Shaw, had been hit over the head and set on fire, then he, David Lurie, would have driven to the hospital and sat waiting, without so much as a newspaper to read, to fetch him home. Bill Shaw believes that, beause he and David Lurie once had a cup of tea together, David Lurie is his friend, and the two of them have obligations towards each other. Is Bill Shaw wrong or right? Has Bill Shaw, who was born in Hankey, not two hundred kilometres away, and works in a hardware shop, seen so little of the world that he does not know that there are men who do not readily make friends, whose attitude toward friendship between men is corroded with scepticism? Modern English friend from Old English freond, from freon, to love. Does the drinking of tea seal a love-bond, in the eyes of Bill Shaw? Yet but for Bill and Bev Shaw, but for old Ettinger, but for bonds of some kind, where would he be now? On the ruined farm with the broken telephone amid the dead dogs.
Vynikajúco napísaný román Disgrace, ktorý skúma hlbiny temnoty ľudskej duše, získal v roku 1999 Bookerovu cenu a v roku 2008 bol sfilmovaný pod rovnakým názvom s Johnom Malkovichom v hlavnej úlohe.
Článok bol uverejnený na artblogu.
