Disgrace: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

David Lurie is fifty-two, twice divorced, and has “solved the problem of sex” by visiting a prostitute named Soraya every Thursday afternoon. In an apartment rented by the prostitution agency, he and Soraya have sex and pass the time. He has even begun to feel truly affectionate toward her because he “takes pleasure in her,” and he can almost convince himself that she feels the same. In fact, he has considered asking to spend time with her when she’s not working, but he knows he’ll lose interest in her in the morning if they ever spend a night together. This, he knows, is his “temperament,” which he doesn’t believe can change, since he’s “too old for that.”

David frequently “unburdens” himself by talking to Soraya about his private life, but she doesn’t tell him stories in return. Despite his willingness to talk about personal matters, he avoids speaking about his job at Cape Technical University, mainly because he thinks he’ll bore her. He used to be a professor in Classics and Modern Languages, but was recently demoted to an adjunct position when his department was reconfigured into a Communications department. Now he teaches courses he doesn’t care about, except one class in the Romantic poets, which the university has allowed him to continue offering. This is somewhat demoralizing, since he has written three books about poetry and opera, but none of this seems to matter to anyone anymore.

The fact that his ninety-minute sessions with Soraya satisfy him so much surprises David. Indeed, he “used to think he needed a wife, a home, a marriage,” but now he sees that all he needs is a weekly appointment to have sex with a woman who won’t even share her real name with him. Unfortunately for him, though, his arrangement with Soraya changes when he sees her and her two sons walking in the city one day. Making eye contact, he immediately “regrets” spotting her in public. Not long after this encounter, Soraya tells him she won’t be returning to the prostitution agency because she has to “take a break” to care for her ailing mother. When he asks how he’ll be able to reach her, she tells him to call the agency.

Several days later, David calls the prostitution agency and asks for Soraya, but they tell him they can’t give out her information. He books an appointment with another woman who has taken the fake name Soraya, but he finds her “unpractised” and unsatisfying. For his entire life, David has benefited from his striking good looks, never having any trouble attracting women. Now, though, he is disconcerted that women don’t look at him the way they used to, which is why he has started seeing prostitutes. He has also flung himself into several ill-advised affairs with his colleagues’ wives. In the wake of Soraya’s disappearance, he takes his department’s secretary out and, on their second date, they go to his house and have sex, though he avoids her in the following days.

Sometimes David thinks it would be better to be castrated than to see the death of his sexual powers. This, however, isn’t something a person can ask a doctor to do, so he continues to obsess over Soraya, eventually tracking down her number and calling her at home. When she answers, she says, “I don’t know who you are. You are harassing me in my own house. I demand you will never phone me here again, never.”