Book Review- Disgrace

I just finished reading this book this morning. I usually buy books from the local favorites section at Barnes and Nobels. This one won the nobel prize in literature so I picked it up. Over all, I found the book to be rather intriguing. It was a fast read ( two or three days) but rather draining. The story follows a fifty year old man, a teacher of Romantic liturature in South Africa. He looses his job because he sleeps with one of his students. He is a rather callous and stubburn man when it comes to apology or rational thought (part of the reason why the book bogged me down). I never understood his motivation. Which could have been the point. He had no motivation. He just slept with who ever to fill a craving, an obsession, and eros. He romaticized his knowledge of poetry rather than his woman. Not having any knowledge of Byron ( a writer whose life the main character obsesses), i kind of felt left out. But as a whole, I felt the anger and the loneliness in this story. I am not fifty nor do I know any one who is... but the story worked one of my greatest fears: dying alone, being old and not knowing what to do with myself, not being able to protect my family or my dignity. And for that, I think that the author deserves his nobel prize. The story was different and entertaining. It strummed the strings of my emotions and opened my eyes to a way of life that I have never though about.    

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