'Interesting' and 'challenging'. It was a difficult book to read. Depressing to watch everything possible go wrong, with a sense that none of the characters had the power or the will to change matters. There was no resolution, and not much in the way of character development, and we struggled desparately to find some small measure of redemption in the book. And where was the disgrace of the title anyway. David's affair with the student wasn't all that bad. Lucy's rape? (Carolyn admitted that she had been involved in a scandal at the U of Montana 4 decades ago, when she, a graduate student, had an affair with a prof. But they've now been married for 40 years, so one can say that it all worked out.)