The cool thing about David is that, even though he's not the narrator of the novel per se, we still get to read his thoughts the whole time. David's our protagonist, and sure he makes us groan, but...

When we first meet Lucy, it's sort of a shock that she's even remotely related to David. In contrast with David's sleek, suave, sophisticated ways – pouring red wine, watching art films, teac...

When we meet Petrus, we seem to be meeting a representative of the countryside. David immediately notices his physical features: "A lined, weathered face; shrewd eyes. Forty? Forty-five?" (7.51). W...

We meet Bev Shaw when David goes to the market with Lucy for the first time. Bev unambiguously belongs to the country. In contrast with the women that David's used to meeting in the city, she total...

Pollux is another one of our chief characters who exists solely in the country. The narrator initially presents him as "a boy," which makes him sound innocent enough until we actually see what he i...

Mr. Isaacs is Melanie's dad. He's the principal of the local middle school in George. Though he comes after David to confront him about his relationship with Melanie, Mr. Isaacs later invites David...

Dezzy is Melanie's little sister. She lets David into the Isaacs' home without batting an eyelash, but she changes her tune when she finds out who he is. We find out that she is quite the beautiful...

Ryan, who by all accounts is Melanie's boyfriend, appears to be your stereotypical bad boy, or at least what Coetzee imagines one to be. He dresses head-to-toe in black, has an earring and a goatee...

A professor of Social Sciences at Cape Technical University, Farodia Rasool is one of the committee members in charge of judging David's case. She is also in charge of the University-wide committee...