DISGRACE, a novel by J.M. Coetzee, read and reviewed by N.H.V.V.

It's a story about a divorced professor of romantic poetry at a South African university who at first frequents whores. When his favorite prostitute is no longer available, he has a little love affair with one of his students. She's not doing very well in his class, and he gives her a 70, which she really doesn't deserve. She's thinking of dropping out of school. She tells her former boyfriend and parents about the love affair. The administration of the university threatens to fire him unless he makes a sincere apology for what he has done. The story goes to prove that it's morally better to pay a prostitute for sex than to get it from a pupil. This book is a well written novel by a Nobel Prize winner, which makes one wonder, why he wanted to write it. I might say that, maybe the author thought that he'd make enough money because of his reputation as a novelist to pay for his mediocre sex habits. Not wanting to be snide, I can say, I was grateful to have a novel to read today as entertaining and well-written as this one. Copyright 2011, by Nicholas Van Vactor

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