A cry for reparations for Lucy Lurie. She is the victim of an act of terrible sexual violence that devastates her life. Afterwards, she becomes obsessed with the author John Coetzee, the man who wrote the scene of violence in which she was attacked. Withdrawn and fearful of crowds, Lucy nonetheless makes occasional forays into the world of men in her search for Coetzee himself. She means to confront him. The Lucy in his novel, Disgrace, is passive and almost entirely lacking agency. Lucy means to right the record, for she is the lacuna that Coetzee left in his novel-the missing piece of the puzzle. Lucy plans to put herself back in the story, to assert her agency and identity. For Lucy Lurie will be no man's lacuna.
This riveting, feminist reply to the book considered to be Coetzee's masterwork is also a moving story of one woman trying to put her life back together after trauma.
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A lacuna is an unfilled space or gap. CHAPTER 1
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(@EuropaEditions, 19 May 2022, ebook, 253 pages, copy from the publisher via @edelweiss_squad)
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I really hate the novel Disgrace for all the reasons people seem to love it. I really loved Lacuna. I found myself wondering if Coetzee did in fact base the rape in his famous book on someone's actual experience. Lacuna makes this entirely plausible. The book is narrated by Lucy who is furious the story of what happened to her has been taken from her, by a man no less and used to launch a dazzling literary career. There are moments of fantasy as she imagines a different version of events. In one version, her rapists are caught and imprisoned and in another Coetzee apologise for his actions. This is so well written, engaging and original. I loved every word. This is highly recommended.
