 | author: Philip Roth asin: 0307277712 binding: Paperback list price: $13.00 USD amazon price: $10.40 USD |
Philip Roth’s new novel is a candidly intimate yet universal story of loss, regret, and stoicism. The bestselling author of The Plot Against America now turns his attention from “one family’s harrowing encounter with history” (New York Times) to one man’s lifelong skirmish with mortality.The fate of Roth’s everyman is traced from his first shocking confrontation with death on the idyllic beaches of his childhood summers, through the family trials and professional achievements of his vigorous adulthood, and into his old age, when he is rended by observing the deterioration of his contemporaries and stalked by his own physical woes.The terrain of this powerful novel is the human body. Its subject is the common experience that terrifies us all.
Lazy Literati, first read
My cousins Rachel and Antony have started a book club on Facebook. This was their first pick. Here are my comments.
Now, about this book. It’s a bit depressing. That’s not bad, per se. I mean, everything else I read is depressing; the news, the mail, my bank statements, etc. Why should this book be any different?
Yet he (Roth) was very thorough in emphasizing the connection between existence (as we perceive it) and the corporeal vessel that we keep busy filling and emptying all day long. So thorough in fact that the religious mentions in the book seem almost out of place. We read about Jews and Christians without ever talking about their religion. Mr. Everyman has no religion. His existence is his body.
Out of all of the theories of the afterlife that get spoken of (or believed in), the idea that it just all ends… no more body no more existence for that individual, is certainly the most plausible based on earthly experience and observation. And, in fact, it is somewhat reassuring in the face of the game of Russian roulette offered by Catholicism (does the chamber with the bullet in it represent Heaven or Hell?). If you die and it is just “Over (tm)”, then it really isn’t scary. You can’t even be sad or afraid anymore because there is no You.
I can’t say that this view jives with what I feel is in waiting for us, however. I still imagine an awakening, a lifting of the veil, a return to whence we cometh. Not necessarily as Robert Douglass, a named individual, but at least as a continuity. And I expect there to be ponies. There had better be ponies.
This book also captured some moments that I’ve not seen described before in literature. When he awakes from his bad dream and ponders what was running through Millicent Kramer’s head before she killed herself - that was a nice little exploration. It made me think about how I would commit suicide.
Also interesting was how strongly his mortal vitality was linked to his sexuality. Not only his vitality, but also the very patterns and directions of his lifetime. This supports the view I have, through observation of myself and others, of how men live their lives, so kudos to Roth for accuracy.
Good first choice for the Lazy Literati. We need some sort of Unicorn chaser, though. If there were ever a book that cries out for John le Carré or a nice chick flick to follow, this is the one.
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