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Nemesis
In the 鈥渟tifling heat of equatorial Newark,鈥� a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, lifelong disability, and even death. This is the startling theme of Philip Roth鈥檚 wrenching new a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children. At the center of Nemesis is a vigorous, dutiful twenty-three-year-old playground director, Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower and weightlifter, who is devoted to his charges and disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. Focusing on Cantor鈥檚 dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playground 鈥� and on the everyday realities he faces 鈥� Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can the fear, the panic, the anger, the bewilderment, the suffering, and the pain. Moving between the smoldering, malodorous streets of besieged Newark and Indian Hill, a pristine children鈥檚 summer camp high in the Poconos 鈥� whose 鈥渕ountain air was purified of all contaminants鈥� 鈥� Roth depicts a decent, energetic man with the best intentions struggling in his own private war against the epidemic. Roth is tenderly exact at every point about Cantor鈥檚 passage into personal disaster, and no less exact about the condition of childhood. Through this story run the dark questions that haunt all four of Roth鈥檚 recent short novels, Everyman, Indignation, The Humbling, and now What kind of choices fatally shape a life? How does the individual withstand the onslaught of circumstance?
280 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2010
612 people are currently reading
11.6k people want to read
About the author
Philip Roth
297听books7,113听followersPhilip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction鈥攐ften set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey鈥攊s known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection Goodbye, Columbus, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Ten years later, he published the bestseller Portnoy's Complaint. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Philip Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history The Plot Against America.
Roth was one of the most honored American writers of his generation. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for The Counterlife, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock, The Human Stain, and Everyman, a second National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater, and the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. In 2005, the Library of America began publishing his complete works, making him the second author so anthologized while still living, after Eudora Welty. Harold Bloom named him one of the four greatest American novelists of his day, along with Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo. In 2001, Roth received the inaugural Franz Kafka Prize in Prague.
Roth was one of the most honored American writers of his generation. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for The Counterlife, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock, The Human Stain, and Everyman, a second National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater, and the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. In 2005, the Library of America began publishing his complete works, making him the second author so anthologized while still living, after Eudora Welty. Harold Bloom named him one of the four greatest American novelists of his day, along with Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo. In 2001, Roth received the inaugural Franz Kafka Prize in Prague.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,881 reviews
February 6, 2018
I have been thinking about what makes some books stay in my memory...
... even long after I returned them to a library in a town from which I moved away some ten years ago? And why others just fade away to the extent that I could possibly read them again without ever recognising that I have actually met the characters before? Or to the extent that I buy a new copy because I have forgotten I own one already?
Philip Roth's "Nemesis" is one of those books I remember with force after ten years, and I know why as well. The topic is heartbreaking, and very realistic: a polio epidemic in the 1940s, and how it affects the characters over the course of their lives. As such, it is nothing out of the ordinary, just well-written, good, vintage Philip Roth.
But when I come to the last page, the book closes the circle of the story with - yes! - a memory of the main character from before the the epidemic, and it evokes this picture in me of all the hopes, dreams, ideas we have when we are young, when our life is still a novel to be written by us, and we imagine it to be a heroic tale with a happy beginning, middle and end (although we don't think of the end, of course, and of the fact that the novel would be outrageously bad, from a literary standpoint!).
The main character's early memory, dating before the tragedy unfolds, is of powerful vitality, and it emphasises the impact of the main theme of the later plot, - both physical and mental loss. It is so incredibly sad to read about the young person the main character remembers, and to imagine what comes afterwards, - his failure to cope with the realities of life, his Nemesis, as the title of the novel indicates, referring to ancient Greek drama, where heroes were first put on stage to act out our ideal of a perfect life.
In fact, that very last sentence of the book has more than one reference to ancient Greek idealism, as it shows the Olympic, athletic act of throwing a javelin, carried out by a body not yet destroyed by polio. It demonstrates the treacherous belief in humankind's perfectibility that so often is followed by Nemesis' entrance on the stage:
"Running with the javelin aloft, stretching his throwing arm back behind his body, bringing the throwing arm through to release the javelin high over his shoulder 鈥� and releasing it then like an explosion 鈥� he seemed to us invincible."
The novel closes on that word: invincible... - a sad counterweight to the story of defeat.
Invincible, invincible, invincible - that is what made me remember this novel so clearly.
It is like the slave standing behind the almighty emperor whispering "Memento mori". And yet, the memory of that moment of invincibility is beautiful!
And it made the novel memorable as well. The power of words to conjure up dreams...
... even long after I returned them to a library in a town from which I moved away some ten years ago? And why others just fade away to the extent that I could possibly read them again without ever recognising that I have actually met the characters before? Or to the extent that I buy a new copy because I have forgotten I own one already?
Philip Roth's "Nemesis" is one of those books I remember with force after ten years, and I know why as well. The topic is heartbreaking, and very realistic: a polio epidemic in the 1940s, and how it affects the characters over the course of their lives. As such, it is nothing out of the ordinary, just well-written, good, vintage Philip Roth.
But when I come to the last page, the book closes the circle of the story with - yes! - a memory of the main character from before the the epidemic, and it evokes this picture in me of all the hopes, dreams, ideas we have when we are young, when our life is still a novel to be written by us, and we imagine it to be a heroic tale with a happy beginning, middle and end (although we don't think of the end, of course, and of the fact that the novel would be outrageously bad, from a literary standpoint!).
The main character's early memory, dating before the tragedy unfolds, is of powerful vitality, and it emphasises the impact of the main theme of the later plot, - both physical and mental loss. It is so incredibly sad to read about the young person the main character remembers, and to imagine what comes afterwards, - his failure to cope with the realities of life, his Nemesis, as the title of the novel indicates, referring to ancient Greek drama, where heroes were first put on stage to act out our ideal of a perfect life.
In fact, that very last sentence of the book has more than one reference to ancient Greek idealism, as it shows the Olympic, athletic act of throwing a javelin, carried out by a body not yet destroyed by polio. It demonstrates the treacherous belief in humankind's perfectibility that so often is followed by Nemesis' entrance on the stage:
"Running with the javelin aloft, stretching his throwing arm back behind his body, bringing the throwing arm through to release the javelin high over his shoulder 鈥� and releasing it then like an explosion 鈥� he seemed to us invincible."
The novel closes on that word: invincible... - a sad counterweight to the story of defeat.
Invincible, invincible, invincible - that is what made me remember this novel so clearly.
It is like the slave standing behind the almighty emperor whispering "Memento mori". And yet, the memory of that moment of invincibility is beautiful!
And it made the novel memorable as well. The power of words to conjure up dreams...
February 22, 2021
With "Nemesis" Philip Roth presents another masterpiece in terms of linguistic brilliance, composition and the creation of a lasting effect on the reader. The story takes place in 1944. In Europe and the Pacific the world war raged.
In the summer of 1944, a polio epidemic broke out in Newark, New York. (Poliomyelitis) It was the strongest epidemic in eleven years.
Philip Roth has written a very exciting and tragic story. You can follow the story breathlessly as a reader and the reader witnesses the inner conflict that Bucky Cantor has with god. Philip Roth names his novel after the Greek goddess of revenge 'Nemesis'
A very haunting book that makes you thinks about destiny. For me an absolutely readable story, in very well-kept language!
In the summer of 1944, a polio epidemic broke out in Newark, New York. (Poliomyelitis) It was the strongest epidemic in eleven years.
Philip Roth has written a very exciting and tragic story. You can follow the story breathlessly as a reader and the reader witnesses the inner conflict that Bucky Cantor has with god. Philip Roth names his novel after the Greek goddess of revenge 'Nemesis'
A very haunting book that makes you thinks about destiny. For me an absolutely readable story, in very well-kept language!
May 25, 2018
The last of the eponymous tetralogy, Nemesis is the powerfully written tale of Bucky Cantor and the Newark polio crisis of 1944. Unable to go into the war like his friends primarily due to his poor eyesight, Bucky - a natural athlete- works as a gym teacher and playground director (do those even exist anymore?) when the epidemic hits Newark hard. As always Roth's prose is sublime, his humanity breathtaking, and his analysis sharp and precise. Roth said that this would be his last book ever and I must admit that it is a great way to walk off the stage with a short but wonderful book like Nemesis.
RIP (1933-2018). One of America's literary giants has left us.
RIP (1933-2018). One of America's literary giants has left us.
December 15, 2024
A further reading of a book that has stayed with me. I'd go as far as to say it's one of the five most memorable books I've read. A sympathetic and sometimes unsettling account set at a time of suspicion and suffering. The reflection on human nature - both good and bad - has the ring of complete truth about it. It's easy to believe that the conversations and events depicted here actually happened. It's both a sad tale and an uplifting one. It's a book that creates in the reader the need for reflection to ponder on the messages the story carries.
A good book? No, in my opinion, it's a great book. One I'll return to again, for sure.
--------------------------------------------
Roth's books are usually dark, unsettling, argumentative, challenging, sexually explicit, political鈥� well, you get the picture. So, it's not quite what you'd necessarily reach for when you're spending your summer holiday lazing on a beach. But if you've had your fill of crime capers and mysteries and fancy something a little more serious, then a ration of Roth might just do the trick.
This novel is set in Newark in the sweltering summer of 1944 at the time of a polio epidemic. It follows a young man who is not fighting in the war due to his poor eyesight and has instead become a school playground director. His goal is to nurture and protect the young people in his charge and to show them the joys and benefits of sporting activity. What transpires is told beautifully by the author, as we witness the story unfolding through the eyes of one of the youngsters who is to become a victim of the outbreak. It's a concise and spare tale, but it is none the worst for that.
It's a gripping story of compassion and dedication set against the backdrop of truly heartbreaking events. It's a departure, I feel, for Roth - gone is the anger and invective that permeates much of his work, replaced by subtlety and a deftness of touch I've not seen from him before. A wonderful read one not to be missed.
A good book? No, in my opinion, it's a great book. One I'll return to again, for sure.
--------------------------------------------
Roth's books are usually dark, unsettling, argumentative, challenging, sexually explicit, political鈥� well, you get the picture. So, it's not quite what you'd necessarily reach for when you're spending your summer holiday lazing on a beach. But if you've had your fill of crime capers and mysteries and fancy something a little more serious, then a ration of Roth might just do the trick.
This novel is set in Newark in the sweltering summer of 1944 at the time of a polio epidemic. It follows a young man who is not fighting in the war due to his poor eyesight and has instead become a school playground director. His goal is to nurture and protect the young people in his charge and to show them the joys and benefits of sporting activity. What transpires is told beautifully by the author, as we witness the story unfolding through the eyes of one of the youngsters who is to become a victim of the outbreak. It's a concise and spare tale, but it is none the worst for that.
It's a gripping story of compassion and dedication set against the backdrop of truly heartbreaking events. It's a departure, I feel, for Roth - gone is the anger and invective that permeates much of his work, replaced by subtlety and a deftness of touch I've not seen from him before. A wonderful read one not to be missed.
March 23, 2023
鈥淚n three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on鈥濃€擱obert Frost
鈥淭he meaning of life is that it stops鈥濃€擣ranz Kafka
In Nemesis, Eugene 鈥淏ucky鈥� Cantor works as a recreation director at a park in Newark in 1944. Because he has bad vision he can鈥檛 serve in WWII fighting Hitler, but his battlefield (at the recreation center) becomes the largest Polio epidemic in the US since 1916, also affecting many Jews. Besides his eyesight, Bucky is otherwise fit and strong, at one point leaving his job for a similar one in the Poconos, becoming engaged, joining a family such as he has ever known (his mother died giving birth to him, his father was out of the picture). Everything seems perfect, until it isn鈥檛, in the war in Europe (for millions, of course, but also including one of his best friends) or the war at home against polio, and in his own personal life.
Nemesis is Philip Roth鈥檚 last novel, published in 2010 at the age of 77, after which he took his retirement from writing novels. He died in 2018. Roth is largely a tough-minded writer, so I can say it is pretty rare that I get misty-eyed from his writing, but in the concluding image of the young Bucky Cantor throwing the javelin to the applause of the young boys who so admired him and his physical prowess, I鈥檒l admit I was moved:
鈥淩unning with the javelin aloft, stretching his throwing arm behind his body, bringing the throwing arm through to release the javelin high over his shoulder鈥攁nd releasing it then like an explosion鈥攈e seemed to us invincible.鈥�
Of course Bucky is not invincible; he is not Superman, or a Greek god, but a mortal being like any of us, as all of his four Nemeses books 鈥揈veryman, Indignation, The Humbling, and Nemesis鈥攔eveal, each main character enduring the truths of loss and regret. But they also face hard realities with stoicism. Suicide is a consideration in each of the four books, and sometimes minor or major characters choose that option in the face of the terrible. But usually there鈥檚 a kind of resolve.
In Everyman: 鈥淛ust take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes. There鈥檚 no other way.鈥�
Or The Humbling: 鈥淧lay the moment, play whatever plays for you in that moment, and then go to the next moment. It doesn't matter where you're going. Don't worry about that. Just take it moment, moment, moment, moment.鈥�
What else do you have in the face of inevitable decline? You hold on to craft, to good work, in the Nemeses books, something to hold up against any formidable nemesis: The father butcher in Indignation; in Everyman, the father jeweler (and a gravedigger who speaks of his work) and in The Humbling the craft of acting is the main character鈥檚 work. In Nemesis, the young sports director Bucky cares about sport鈥攕wimming, throwing the javelin with perfect form; then there is his future father-in-law who is a fine physician, very thoughtful and calm and knowledgeable in the face of the epidemic. In the craftsman in each of these books we see the very image of the writer Roth, crafting to the end.
Nemesis is a beautifully crafted and simple book, with a pretty narrow scope, involving a return to Newark, to his Jewish community there, and what was for everyone at the time an incurable disease that created panic and loss and desolation. Sometimes in the Nemeses books it鈥檚 bad choices that lead to loss, as in Indignation: 鈥渢he incomprehensible way one's most banal, incidental, even comical choices archive the most disproportionate result.鈥�
And sometimes it鈥檚 chance: Polio, the luck of the draw, one means to an inevitable end, a nemesis. In each of the four Nemeses stories a nemesis or enemy defeats the main character, though death is the central enemy, the invincible conqueror for each of them.
In three of the books he evokes a central text in classic literature: in Everyman it is the classic medieval morality tale Everyman; in The Humbling it is Chekhov鈥檚 The Seagull, and in Nemesis it is the classical story from Greek Mythology. Nemesis was the goddess who enacted retribution against those who succumb to hubris. Nemesis is also called Adrasteia, or 鈥渢he inescapable.鈥� Or the inevitable, the invincible, as in death. The polio epidemic is a sad tale, sure, but in the hands of a good storyteller, it becomes a powerful one. I admire the way Bucky and Roth handle their nemeses, with grace and dignity.
1. Everyman (completed August 3, 2018) /review/show...
2. Indignation (completed July 30, 2018)
/review/show...
3. The Humbling (completed August 9, 2018)
/review/show...
4. Nemesis (completed August 22, 2018)
鈥淭he meaning of life is that it stops鈥濃€擣ranz Kafka
In Nemesis, Eugene 鈥淏ucky鈥� Cantor works as a recreation director at a park in Newark in 1944. Because he has bad vision he can鈥檛 serve in WWII fighting Hitler, but his battlefield (at the recreation center) becomes the largest Polio epidemic in the US since 1916, also affecting many Jews. Besides his eyesight, Bucky is otherwise fit and strong, at one point leaving his job for a similar one in the Poconos, becoming engaged, joining a family such as he has ever known (his mother died giving birth to him, his father was out of the picture). Everything seems perfect, until it isn鈥檛, in the war in Europe (for millions, of course, but also including one of his best friends) or the war at home against polio, and in his own personal life.
Nemesis is Philip Roth鈥檚 last novel, published in 2010 at the age of 77, after which he took his retirement from writing novels. He died in 2018. Roth is largely a tough-minded writer, so I can say it is pretty rare that I get misty-eyed from his writing, but in the concluding image of the young Bucky Cantor throwing the javelin to the applause of the young boys who so admired him and his physical prowess, I鈥檒l admit I was moved:
鈥淩unning with the javelin aloft, stretching his throwing arm behind his body, bringing the throwing arm through to release the javelin high over his shoulder鈥攁nd releasing it then like an explosion鈥攈e seemed to us invincible.鈥�
Of course Bucky is not invincible; he is not Superman, or a Greek god, but a mortal being like any of us, as all of his four Nemeses books 鈥揈veryman, Indignation, The Humbling, and Nemesis鈥攔eveal, each main character enduring the truths of loss and regret. But they also face hard realities with stoicism. Suicide is a consideration in each of the four books, and sometimes minor or major characters choose that option in the face of the terrible. But usually there鈥檚 a kind of resolve.
In Everyman: 鈥淛ust take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes. There鈥檚 no other way.鈥�
Or The Humbling: 鈥淧lay the moment, play whatever plays for you in that moment, and then go to the next moment. It doesn't matter where you're going. Don't worry about that. Just take it moment, moment, moment, moment.鈥�
What else do you have in the face of inevitable decline? You hold on to craft, to good work, in the Nemeses books, something to hold up against any formidable nemesis: The father butcher in Indignation; in Everyman, the father jeweler (and a gravedigger who speaks of his work) and in The Humbling the craft of acting is the main character鈥檚 work. In Nemesis, the young sports director Bucky cares about sport鈥攕wimming, throwing the javelin with perfect form; then there is his future father-in-law who is a fine physician, very thoughtful and calm and knowledgeable in the face of the epidemic. In the craftsman in each of these books we see the very image of the writer Roth, crafting to the end.
Nemesis is a beautifully crafted and simple book, with a pretty narrow scope, involving a return to Newark, to his Jewish community there, and what was for everyone at the time an incurable disease that created panic and loss and desolation. Sometimes in the Nemeses books it鈥檚 bad choices that lead to loss, as in Indignation: 鈥渢he incomprehensible way one's most banal, incidental, even comical choices archive the most disproportionate result.鈥�
And sometimes it鈥檚 chance: Polio, the luck of the draw, one means to an inevitable end, a nemesis. In each of the four Nemeses stories a nemesis or enemy defeats the main character, though death is the central enemy, the invincible conqueror for each of them.
In three of the books he evokes a central text in classic literature: in Everyman it is the classic medieval morality tale Everyman; in The Humbling it is Chekhov鈥檚 The Seagull, and in Nemesis it is the classical story from Greek Mythology. Nemesis was the goddess who enacted retribution against those who succumb to hubris. Nemesis is also called Adrasteia, or 鈥渢he inescapable.鈥� Or the inevitable, the invincible, as in death. The polio epidemic is a sad tale, sure, but in the hands of a good storyteller, it becomes a powerful one. I admire the way Bucky and Roth handle their nemeses, with grace and dignity.
1. Everyman (completed August 3, 2018) /review/show...
2. Indignation (completed July 30, 2018)
/review/show...
3. The Humbling (completed August 9, 2018)
/review/show...
4. Nemesis (completed August 22, 2018)
July 10, 2023
鈥濽neori ai noroc, alteori nu. Orice biografie este o chestie de noroc 艧i, 卯ncep卯nd chiar de la na艧tere, norocul 鈥� tirania contingentului 鈥� este totul. Any biography is chance, and, beginning at conception, chance 鈥� the tyranny of contingency 鈥� is everything鈥� (p.258).
Termin Nemesis cu sentimente amestecate.
Drama lui Bucky Cantor, t卯n膬rul profesor de Sport 卯nvins de poliomielit膬 葯i de modul s膬u aspru 葯i rigid de a g卯ndi, este mi葯c膬toare. Frazele s卯nt la locul lor (citi葲i mai sus 葯i mai jos c卯teva extrase). Discu葲ia din final dintre Bucky Cantor 葯i Arnie Mesnikoff (fostul lui elev, naratorul acestei pove葯ti) ridic膬 miza romanului (cei doi discut膬 despre rela葲ia dintre necesitate 葯i liber arbitru, printre altele), chiar dac膬 unii critici literari l-au catalogat drept 鈥瀖inor鈥�. 葮i, totu葯i, simt c膬 lipse葯te ceva.
Nici un alt roman al lui Philip Roth nu mi se pare at卯t de cuminte. Parc膬 a fost scris pentru juriul Academiei suedeze. Lipsesc sfidarea, ironia, cinismul, 鈥炄沬cneala鈥� eroilor din celelalte c膬r葲i. Bucky Cantor se 卯nchide 卯n convingerea de neclintit c膬 el a fost purt膬torul maladiei 卯n tab膬ra de la Indian Hill (dar 葯i 卯n grupul de copii din Newark) 葯i c膬 trebuie s膬-葯i asume o vinov膬葲ie - pe care, altminteri, nimeni nu i-o recunoa葯te.
Nici un argument (oric卯t de 卯ntemeiat) nu-l ajut膬 s膬 se priveasc膬 altfel. Nici Marcia nu reu葯e葯te s膬-l conving膬 de faptul c膬 e un inocent (al膬turi de to葲i ceilal葲i). A葯adar, nici iubirea nu-l ajut膬 s膬 vad膬 mai limpede. De 卯ndat膬 ce se 卯mboln膬ve葯te, Bucky Cantor decide c膬 e vinovat 葯i c膬 trebuie s膬 pl膬teasc膬. A r膬sp卯ndit boala, a r膬mas infirm, cineva trebuie s膬 r膬spund膬 pentru tot ceea ce s-a petrecut. Via葲a lui se opre葯te 卯n acest punct 葯i 卯n acest loc. Urmeaz膬 o lung膬 rutin膬, un timp gol, o repeti葲ie monoton膬 a c膬in葲ei.
Atletul admirat de to葲i (s膬ritorul de la trambulin膬, arunc膬torul de suli葲膬), alege s膬 nu mai dea nici o b膬t膬lie. Cel care-i fascina pe copiii de pe terenul de sport se retrage din via葲膬. 葮i totul 卯ncremene葯te pentru el 卯ntr-o var膬 torid膬 din 1944. To葲i ceilal葲i 葯tiu de ce, numai el nu-i 卯n stare s膬 priceap膬.
Iat膬 ce-i spune Marcia 卯n timpul disputei de la spitalul din Philadelphia:
鈥濶iciodat膬 n-ai putut c卯nt膬ri lucrurile la adev膬ratul lor pre牛. Niciodat膬! Te consideri 卯ntotdeauna r膬spunz膬tor atunci c卯nd de fapt nu e艧ti. Responsabil e 卯ntotdeauna fie 卯nfior膬torul Dumnezeu, fie 卯nfior膬torul Bucky Cantor, c卯nd de fapt responsabilitatea nu apar牛ine nici unuia鈥� (pp.276-277).
October 9, 2010
if i pie-graphed all the (wasted) hours i've spent arguing on this site, a sizable portion would be wedged out to old man roth. he's one of those guys that really drives people batty (call it a flaw, but i really really love those people who drive other people up the wall): whether he's too ironic, too earnest, too jewish, too american, too classical, too postmodern, too stylized, not stylized enough, too white, too old, too liberal, too conservative, or that he's a misogynist, racist, sexist, self-loathing anti-semite, etc. lotsa people have serious problems with the old bastard. but like morrissey (about the only thing they have in common), those who dig him really dig him. and for those in this camp, i have 2 pieces of good news:
1. in the opening pages of nemesis, in which your typical roth book divvies up the author's work into categories, there appears a new one: SHORT NOVELS. under this heading are his last few: everyman, indignation, the humbling, nemesis. i'm hoping this signifies the end to one of the least interesting chapters in roth's oeuvre.
2. of the four titles under this heading, nemesis is the best. beyond its own merits, it's exciting as it shows roth climbing outta that old-as-fuck self-pitying mode which has dragged down the (pretty) good: everyman, the (truly) bad: exit ghost, and the ugly: the humbling. here's hoping that his next book is one of those big bad complex panoramic novels that roth does better than just about any other living writer.
skimming the nytimes review for nemesis, i came across this bit:
"His characters sometimes get caught up in a kind of Socratic M枚bius strip, endlessly debating one another and themselves in a way that can verge on the tedious, but even then one cannot but marvel at his sheer energy, his unremitting investment in 鈥� what? Provocation. Interrogation. The feat of living. This is not a nihilist. This is a writer whose creative work lays bare the act of struggle."
yes. yes. yes.
(in vain, i hunted for a lost thread in which mike reynolds - another rothfan - waxed poetic on roth's energy and anger. anyone know where this is?)
oh. and here goes a totally irrelevant (but very fun) link to piss off monsieur watkins:
1. in the opening pages of nemesis, in which your typical roth book divvies up the author's work into categories, there appears a new one: SHORT NOVELS. under this heading are his last few: everyman, indignation, the humbling, nemesis. i'm hoping this signifies the end to one of the least interesting chapters in roth's oeuvre.
2. of the four titles under this heading, nemesis is the best. beyond its own merits, it's exciting as it shows roth climbing outta that old-as-fuck self-pitying mode which has dragged down the (pretty) good: everyman, the (truly) bad: exit ghost, and the ugly: the humbling. here's hoping that his next book is one of those big bad complex panoramic novels that roth does better than just about any other living writer.
skimming the nytimes review for nemesis, i came across this bit:
"His characters sometimes get caught up in a kind of Socratic M枚bius strip, endlessly debating one another and themselves in a way that can verge on the tedious, but even then one cannot but marvel at his sheer energy, his unremitting investment in 鈥� what? Provocation. Interrogation. The feat of living. This is not a nihilist. This is a writer whose creative work lays bare the act of struggle."
yes. yes. yes.
(in vain, i hunted for a lost thread in which mike reynolds - another rothfan - waxed poetic on roth's energy and anger. anyone know where this is?)
oh. and here goes a totally irrelevant (but very fun) link to piss off monsieur watkins:
May 16, 2011
I read this in a day (it was Sunday). Started at 9 in the morning (weather unseasonably cool); finished on the stroke of midnight. I did stop to eat and breathe and watch a movie, but gulping down a short Roth was very invigorating. This novel has a powerful grip for one so short, like an 80 year old grandmother who just won鈥檛 let you go. It鈥檚 a tragic story of a polio epidemic in 1944 in Newark, New Jersey and I give it four big stars for its urgency, unusual subject and the fact that Philip Roth is NOT banging on about his old withered penis and its uncanny power over women one third his age. That is good news for a reader like me who thinks that Mr Roth is a great writer when he鈥檚 not boring us into a state of hyperaggravation about his shrivelled old member and its hypnotic properties. However I did contemplate docking one star for the unhappy lapse into symbolism and crude theological discussions at the end, which went something like
鈥淕od is a complete bastard.鈥�
鈥淥 Bucky, don鈥檛 be so childish.鈥�
鈥淗尘辫丑.鈥�
But then I thought no, give Mr Roth back his fourth star. I like to like him, I鈥檓 sorry I don鈥檛 get the opportunity more often because of his hideous sexual problems.
And also, I appreciated, if that is the right word, which it isn鈥檛, the unspoken irony which hangs over the whole story like a leaking zeppelin, which is that this is a sad and touching tale of a handful of deaths in a particular Jewish community and how devastating they are, whilst off-stage, over in Europe, under the cover of the war which is constantly referred to, entire Jewish millions were being slaughtered, entire communities, with no one left to be devastated, no one left at all.
鈥淕od is a complete bastard.鈥�
鈥淥 Bucky, don鈥檛 be so childish.鈥�
鈥淗尘辫丑.鈥�
But then I thought no, give Mr Roth back his fourth star. I like to like him, I鈥檓 sorry I don鈥檛 get the opportunity more often because of his hideous sexual problems.
And also, I appreciated, if that is the right word, which it isn鈥檛, the unspoken irony which hangs over the whole story like a leaking zeppelin, which is that this is a sad and touching tale of a handful of deaths in a particular Jewish community and how devastating they are, whilst off-stage, over in Europe, under the cover of the war which is constantly referred to, entire Jewish millions were being slaughtered, entire communities, with no one left to be devastated, no one left at all.
March 26, 2021
A nurse shares a smile with a child inside of an iron lung, City of Boston Archives from West Roxbury, United States
"Today childhood summers are as sublimely worry-free as they should be. The significance of polio has disappeared completely. Nobody anymore is defenseless like we were."
Philip Roth's Nemesis is a terrifying book taking place in 1944, eleven years before the polio vaccine was available. It is set in a Jewish neighborhood in Newark, NJ where we are witness to the terror afflicting the citizens as more and more people, especially children, are afflicted with the virus.
Scientists knew polio was caused by a virus, but they didn't know how it spread and entered the body. When something is unknown, our brains do a remarkable job of coming up with answers.
The frightened citizens of Newark blamed the contagion on everything imaginable, from touching money to eating a hot dog, from Italians to Black people, even the summer heat itself.
It was interesting to watch as their fear made them suspicious and hateful of the people around them. Everyone was a potential carrier of the disease.
"I don鈥檛 know why it attacks who it attacks. I don鈥檛 believe that anyone does. That鈥檚 why everybody tries to find who or what is guilty. They try to figure out what鈥檚 responsible so they can eliminate it."
The book centers around Bucky, a young school teacher who is playground director for the summer. He watches, helpless, as more and more children come down with polio. He, like everyone else, seeks a cause of the virus. He is left questioning "God", how could an omnipotent being allow or even cause such things to happen.
It was thought-provoking to note, with the year being 1944 and several of the neighborhood's young men fighting in the war, that no mention is made of how the Jews were being exterminated in Europe, and how an all-good and all-powerful Supreme Being could allow or even be responsible for the Holocaust. Was the polio outbreak ravaging this Jewish community a metaphor?
Philip Roth was an incredible writer with a deep understanding of human nature and I was drawn in to this book almost immediately. Though it lags in a few places, it is an engrossing story.
I was horrified to learn how ghastly polio was, with the years of suffering it caused to even the survivors. The world is fortunate to have a vaccine. Anti-vaxxers need to take a look at recent history and see how science and vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented untold misery.
The world is fortunate to have a vaccine.
June 23, 2022
If you have never read a Philip Roth book before, then this is your perfect opportunity: you only need three hours. But keep in mind: though it does contain some of his classic ingredients (the Northeastern city of Newark as the place of action, the Jewish environment, the process of a 3rd storyteller who tells the life of someone else), this is not a typical Roth.
First of all "Nemesis" is much shorter than most of Roth鈥檚 other books, and it does not contain that complex composition, deeper stratification, and wonderfully spun out storytelling of and or the neurotic and excessively sexually obsession of and . The 'Roth universe' indeed is much richer than what this booklet has to offer. It looks very much like Roth in his old age forced himself to go to the essence and to focus exclusively on how people deal with the blind tragedy of life (whether it is the war - because this is happening in 1944 - or the polio virus that paralyzes and kills innocent children) and how this makes or breaks their lives.
With "Nemesis" Philip Roth did what John Williams did with and Ernest Hemingway with : at the end of their lifes they wrote a perfect short novel, with a simple composition, in an incredibly ripe literary style and with a restrained passion that touches the reader emotionally to the core. All three of these novels revolve around the same theme: human destiny and its setbacks, and how to deal with it. And of course, the three authors each have their own emphasis, one more fatalistic than the other, but in the end with all three novels I had the same mix of emotions: a mixture of anger (yes anger, even rebellion) about the wasted life of the protagonists and yet also resignation and even acceptance.
I only have one advice to the reading addicts that we all are, here on this website: read this book by Roth, let yourself be touched, cry with it, get angry, put it away and then live, for heaven鈥檚 sake: LIVE!
First of all "Nemesis" is much shorter than most of Roth鈥檚 other books, and it does not contain that complex composition, deeper stratification, and wonderfully spun out storytelling of and or the neurotic and excessively sexually obsession of and . The 'Roth universe' indeed is much richer than what this booklet has to offer. It looks very much like Roth in his old age forced himself to go to the essence and to focus exclusively on how people deal with the blind tragedy of life (whether it is the war - because this is happening in 1944 - or the polio virus that paralyzes and kills innocent children) and how this makes or breaks their lives.
With "Nemesis" Philip Roth did what John Williams did with and Ernest Hemingway with : at the end of their lifes they wrote a perfect short novel, with a simple composition, in an incredibly ripe literary style and with a restrained passion that touches the reader emotionally to the core. All three of these novels revolve around the same theme: human destiny and its setbacks, and how to deal with it. And of course, the three authors each have their own emphasis, one more fatalistic than the other, but in the end with all three novels I had the same mix of emotions: a mixture of anger (yes anger, even rebellion) about the wasted life of the protagonists and yet also resignation and even acceptance.
I only have one advice to the reading addicts that we all are, here on this website: read this book by Roth, let yourself be touched, cry with it, get angry, put it away and then live, for heaven鈥檚 sake: LIVE!
September 27, 2019
What a joy! After reading several debut or "promising" novels, it is a relief to be in the hands of a skilled professional. I see no diminution of Roth's power in his last novel. The story of a young man in 1944 Newark, in the midst of a polio epidemic, is brilliant and thought provoking.
March 30, 2025
How does an epidemic spread...and what is infected? Can a society become infected by the bias it has 'inoculated' within the norms/values it shares? My favorite book by Philip Roth. It eerily reminds you of what we went through with COVID; all the different information out there, people confused and just trying to do what they thought was right.
October 1, 2011
FRICKIN FANTASTIC---
If I could pick one author to study ---(read and discuss his books)---in a College University class---
it would be Philip Roth.
He gets to me 'Always'.....and "Nemesis" is a gem.
Rather than add anything else to the already wonderful 'other' 5 star reviews that several people also gave this book....
I'll just say--- I think Roth is one of our very best contemporary American writers we've got!
Love how this guys brain works!!!
If I could pick one author to study ---(read and discuss his books)---in a College University class---
it would be Philip Roth.
He gets to me 'Always'.....and "Nemesis" is a gem.
Rather than add anything else to the already wonderful 'other' 5 star reviews that several people also gave this book....
I'll just say--- I think Roth is one of our very best contemporary American writers we've got!
Love how this guys brain works!!!
February 8, 2025
The world would have been a better place if more people had read this book at the start of 2020.
This story of an epidemic is, unfortunately, all too familiar now. From the blame game鈥攆irst targeting one group, then another鈥攖o the lack of empathy for others' pain, to the ease with which the hero becomes the villain, Philip Roth captures every step of the slow spiral into ruthlessness that comes so naturally to humans when they lose control. His tone is direct but less provocative.
The fact that these events take place during the Second World War in a predominantly Jewish community, and that the main character was left behind due to his poor eyesight, adds unexpected layers to this story鈥攐ne that, unfortunately, seems doomed to repeat itself.
This story of an epidemic is, unfortunately, all too familiar now. From the blame game鈥攆irst targeting one group, then another鈥攖o the lack of empathy for others' pain, to the ease with which the hero becomes the villain, Philip Roth captures every step of the slow spiral into ruthlessness that comes so naturally to humans when they lose control. His tone is direct but less provocative.
The fact that these events take place during the Second World War in a predominantly Jewish community, and that the main character was left behind due to his poor eyesight, adds unexpected layers to this story鈥攐ne that, unfortunately, seems doomed to repeat itself.
October 18, 2010
There's nobody less salvageable than a ruined good boy.
The gnomic sentence above could have served as the epigraph to Roth's masterpiece American Pastoral, a novel to which this absolutely gorgeous and deeply troubling novelette is, I believe, a terrific B-side. Like Swede Levov in Pastoral, protagonist Bucky Cantor is an upstanding citizen of his mid-20th-century Jewish New Jersey community, athletically gifted and respected by all; and like Swede, Bucky finds himself thrown into the kind of personal crisis in which everything he thought he knew -- about himself, about the world, about God -- is violently cast into doubt, a crisis that leads to his undoing. For Swede, the catalyst for such a crisis was an act of terrorism perpetrated by his daughter; for Bucky it's a polio epidemic afflicting the children of Newark in the summer of 1944. In both books, Roth gazes unflinchingly at the effects of inexplicable horror's intrusion into the life of a decent, successful man. But where Pastoral was a devastating sprawl, fussily obsessed with the internal minutiae of a soul in freefall, Nemesis is concentrated and broad, with a big ol' narrative ellipsis between main story and epilogue. That's why I called it a B-side. But the B-side is its own art, and I couldn't ask for a better one than this.
The nemesis of the title is God, as Bucky rails against the injustices of fate like the shipwrecked sailors in Stephen Crane's Naturalist classic , but it's also Bucky himself; the cruel punchline of his tragedy, which makes it almost sadder than Swede Levov's tragedy, is that in ascribing permanent blame to himself for crimes of which no jury in the world would convict him, he actually becomes the agent of his own downfall, fulfills his own irrational prophecy. The ellipsis, which seems to be bothering some readers here, amplifies the effect of this ironic revelation about Bucky; to fill in the details of his life as they occurred rather than in a retrospective postscript would have been to bloat the book unnecessarily. The writing throughout this book is as sharp as any previous Roth I've read, but it's especially beautiful in the game-changing epilogue and lyrical flashback-coda, an inspired passage that could only have come from someone who's still one of our best writers. Make no mistake: as tempting as it is to make fun of him for his continuing solemn fixation on the verities of aging and mortality (and the ridiculous sex of The Humbling, which I gave three stars but which now seems like execrable self-parody), Roth can still write circles around your favorite novelist -- and Nemesis is so good that Roth himself should still be someone's favorite novelist. You earned these five stars, you depressive old geezer!
The gnomic sentence above could have served as the epigraph to Roth's masterpiece American Pastoral, a novel to which this absolutely gorgeous and deeply troubling novelette is, I believe, a terrific B-side. Like Swede Levov in Pastoral, protagonist Bucky Cantor is an upstanding citizen of his mid-20th-century Jewish New Jersey community, athletically gifted and respected by all; and like Swede, Bucky finds himself thrown into the kind of personal crisis in which everything he thought he knew -- about himself, about the world, about God -- is violently cast into doubt, a crisis that leads to his undoing. For Swede, the catalyst for such a crisis was an act of terrorism perpetrated by his daughter; for Bucky it's a polio epidemic afflicting the children of Newark in the summer of 1944. In both books, Roth gazes unflinchingly at the effects of inexplicable horror's intrusion into the life of a decent, successful man. But where Pastoral was a devastating sprawl, fussily obsessed with the internal minutiae of a soul in freefall, Nemesis is concentrated and broad, with a big ol' narrative ellipsis between main story and epilogue. That's why I called it a B-side. But the B-side is its own art, and I couldn't ask for a better one than this.
The nemesis of the title is God, as Bucky rails against the injustices of fate like the shipwrecked sailors in Stephen Crane's Naturalist classic , but it's also Bucky himself; the cruel punchline of his tragedy, which makes it almost sadder than Swede Levov's tragedy, is that in ascribing permanent blame to himself for crimes of which no jury in the world would convict him, he actually becomes the agent of his own downfall, fulfills his own irrational prophecy. The ellipsis, which seems to be bothering some readers here, amplifies the effect of this ironic revelation about Bucky; to fill in the details of his life as they occurred rather than in a retrospective postscript would have been to bloat the book unnecessarily. The writing throughout this book is as sharp as any previous Roth I've read, but it's especially beautiful in the game-changing epilogue and lyrical flashback-coda, an inspired passage that could only have come from someone who's still one of our best writers. Make no mistake: as tempting as it is to make fun of him for his continuing solemn fixation on the verities of aging and mortality (and the ridiculous sex of The Humbling, which I gave three stars but which now seems like execrable self-parody), Roth can still write circles around your favorite novelist -- and Nemesis is so good that Roth himself should still be someone's favorite novelist. You earned these five stars, you depressive old geezer!
January 23, 2023
Din pacate am ajuns sa traim niste vremuri in care multi dintre noi au avut trista ocazie de a-si pune urmatoarele intrebari cumplite: "Daca sunt purtator sanatos?", "Daca eu sunt bine dar cei din jurul meu se imbolnavesc?", "De ce eu am scapat, dar cei dragi nu?", "Cu ce am fost eu mai bun decat ei?", "Unde este dreptatea?"
Oricat de mult te-ai consuma pentru aceste intrebari, raspunsul nu vine si adesea ramai cu reminiscentele acestea de vinovatie, neputinta si amaraciune pe care nimic nu le poate alina.
Romanul debuteaza cu epidemia de poliomielita din Newark, America. Aceasta este o boala extrem de contagioasa care afecteaza in special copiii, tinerii si rareori adultii, facand ravagii grave in organism. Daca bolnavul supravietuieste paraliziei muschilor respiratorii, atunci il asteapta o perioada lunga de recuperare. Graitoare si dureroase sunt acele poze din aceea perioada in care vedem 'plamanii de fier', acei cilindri metalici la care erau conectati pacientii pentru a putea respira.
Bucky Cantor este profesor de sport si supraveghetorul terenului de joaca de la scoala din cartierul evreiesc Weequahic, unde pandemia era tinuta cat de cat sub control.
Intr-o zi un grup de italieni din cartierele afectate vine pe terenul de sport si scuipa spre copii cu intentia vadita de a transmite boala. Bucky reuseste sa-i alunge, dar a doua zi unii copii nu mai vin la joaca, fiind bolnavi. Unii dintre ei mor iar parintii il acuza pe Bucky ca ii lasa sa alerge de capul lor pe terenul de sport. Iubita lui, Marcia, incearca sa-l convinga sa plece in tabara la Indian Hill si sa paraseasca scoala. Pana la urma Bucky face intocmai, dar se tot framanta si se tot invinovateste ca nu a ramas langa copii. In momentul in care si in tabara din Indian Hill incep sa se imbolnaveasca elevii Bucky face o descoperire socanta care il va distruge.
Romanul ridica multe probleme grave si serioase la care un om cu constiinta si cu inteligenta s-ar gandi, cum ar fi acel cocktail fatal dintre neputinta si vinovatie care reuseste sa subjuge total omul si din care este foarte greu de iesit, chiar daca cei din jur (Marcia) incearca sa-l dezvinovateasca. Este un proces care trebuie parcurs intr-o cruda singuratate si care rareori duce la vindecare. Tot acest 'rage' impotriva lui Dumnezeu n-are nici el un rezultat, pentru ca toate aceste intrebari chinuitoare raman fara raspuns.
Pe de alta parte, ne putem gandi ca Bucky crede ca a esuat ca adult si profesor ce avea in grija acesti copii si care trebuia sa-i tina in siguranta. Este o povara extrem de grea pe umerii lui, deoarece nimeni nu doreste sa fie sursa si cauza raului, sa propage raul si boala si sa fie responsabil de decesul unor copii. Faptul ca ia asupra sa o asemenea povara este mult prea mult pentru el.
Titlul, Nemesis, ma gandesc ca nu face referire la zeita greaca Razbunarii, ci are o acceptiune Homeriana, in sensul de dreptate divina. Aici ne gandim la a da fiecaruia ce merita sau ce i se cuvine si ne trimite cu gandul la nedreptatea mortii si la lipsa de logica cu care survine aceasta, deopotriva la cei batrani cat si la cei mult prea tineri.
Mi-am adus de asemenea aminte de sintagma din engleza 'his nemesis' care face referire la dusmanul cel mai aprig al cuiva, practic antiteza lui. Daca Bucky putea fi initial privit ca un erou, atunci 'his nemesis' trebuie sa fie, mintea lui, constiinta sa, interiorul sau. Cel mai mare dusman al sau este asadar el insusi.
In concluzie, va recomand romanul pentru analiza acestor sentimente pe care, iata, in vremurile noastre le putem incerca si noi, dar fiind si un exemplu elocvent de a nu deveni proprii nostri calai, ingropandu-ne intr-o vina si neputinta care nu ajuta la rezolvarea situatiei ci ne aduc distrugerea. O carte dupa care merita sa te opresti, sa stai putin si sa te gandesti la situatiile ce te pot atinge si pe tine. Nu e doar povestea lui Bucky sau povestea vecinului sau a vreunui necunoscut de la televizor, ci poate sa fie, din pacate, povestea noastra.
Oricat de mult te-ai consuma pentru aceste intrebari, raspunsul nu vine si adesea ramai cu reminiscentele acestea de vinovatie, neputinta si amaraciune pe care nimic nu le poate alina.
Romanul debuteaza cu epidemia de poliomielita din Newark, America. Aceasta este o boala extrem de contagioasa care afecteaza in special copiii, tinerii si rareori adultii, facand ravagii grave in organism. Daca bolnavul supravietuieste paraliziei muschilor respiratorii, atunci il asteapta o perioada lunga de recuperare. Graitoare si dureroase sunt acele poze din aceea perioada in care vedem 'plamanii de fier', acei cilindri metalici la care erau conectati pacientii pentru a putea respira.
Bucky Cantor este profesor de sport si supraveghetorul terenului de joaca de la scoala din cartierul evreiesc Weequahic, unde pandemia era tinuta cat de cat sub control.
Intr-o zi un grup de italieni din cartierele afectate vine pe terenul de sport si scuipa spre copii cu intentia vadita de a transmite boala. Bucky reuseste sa-i alunge, dar a doua zi unii copii nu mai vin la joaca, fiind bolnavi. Unii dintre ei mor iar parintii il acuza pe Bucky ca ii lasa sa alerge de capul lor pe terenul de sport. Iubita lui, Marcia, incearca sa-l convinga sa plece in tabara la Indian Hill si sa paraseasca scoala. Pana la urma Bucky face intocmai, dar se tot framanta si se tot invinovateste ca nu a ramas langa copii. In momentul in care si in tabara din Indian Hill incep sa se imbolnaveasca elevii Bucky face o descoperire socanta care il va distruge.
Romanul ridica multe probleme grave si serioase la care un om cu constiinta si cu inteligenta s-ar gandi, cum ar fi acel cocktail fatal dintre neputinta si vinovatie care reuseste sa subjuge total omul si din care este foarte greu de iesit, chiar daca cei din jur (Marcia) incearca sa-l dezvinovateasca. Este un proces care trebuie parcurs intr-o cruda singuratate si care rareori duce la vindecare. Tot acest 'rage' impotriva lui Dumnezeu n-are nici el un rezultat, pentru ca toate aceste intrebari chinuitoare raman fara raspuns.
Pe de alta parte, ne putem gandi ca Bucky crede ca a esuat ca adult si profesor ce avea in grija acesti copii si care trebuia sa-i tina in siguranta. Este o povara extrem de grea pe umerii lui, deoarece nimeni nu doreste sa fie sursa si cauza raului, sa propage raul si boala si sa fie responsabil de decesul unor copii. Faptul ca ia asupra sa o asemenea povara este mult prea mult pentru el.
Titlul, Nemesis, ma gandesc ca nu face referire la zeita greaca Razbunarii, ci are o acceptiune Homeriana, in sensul de dreptate divina. Aici ne gandim la a da fiecaruia ce merita sau ce i se cuvine si ne trimite cu gandul la nedreptatea mortii si la lipsa de logica cu care survine aceasta, deopotriva la cei batrani cat si la cei mult prea tineri.
Mi-am adus de asemenea aminte de sintagma din engleza 'his nemesis' care face referire la dusmanul cel mai aprig al cuiva, practic antiteza lui. Daca Bucky putea fi initial privit ca un erou, atunci 'his nemesis' trebuie sa fie, mintea lui, constiinta sa, interiorul sau. Cel mai mare dusman al sau este asadar el insusi.
In concluzie, va recomand romanul pentru analiza acestor sentimente pe care, iata, in vremurile noastre le putem incerca si noi, dar fiind si un exemplu elocvent de a nu deveni proprii nostri calai, ingropandu-ne intr-o vina si neputinta care nu ajuta la rezolvarea situatiei ci ne aduc distrugerea. O carte dupa care merita sa te opresti, sa stai putin si sa te gandesti la situatiile ce te pot atinge si pe tine. Nu e doar povestea lui Bucky sau povestea vecinului sau a vreunui necunoscut de la televizor, ci poate sa fie, din pacate, povestea noastra.
October 18, 2016
It wasn't great Roth, but I've got to say almost any Roth is going to be pretty damn good. This one focuses on a polio epidemic in 1944. It seems like late in Roth's writing career, after going on one of the greatest runs of 5 star literature ever, Roth spent a decade writing high little novellas that allowed him to explore delicate themes. These books seem to me, the equivalent of Frank Lloyd Wright spending his last years working just on chairs and desks. So, yes, pretty damn good, but in the end they just aren't the things that will be remembered about Roth. They are his funky chairs, just not his holy houses.
January 11, 2021
Nemesis: 鈥渢he inescapable agent of someone's or something's downfall.鈥�
鈥渁 long-standing rival; an archenemy.鈥�
鈥渁 downfall caused by an inescapable agent.鈥�
The Oxford Language Dictionary
Nemesis is the 8th book I have read by Philip Roth. I chose this book to read more or less by accident. Scanning my book shelves at home my eyes fell upon a bright yellow paperback written by Philip Roth. Roth has been under much discussion by friends on GR lately so I thought, 鈥測es, let鈥檚 read some 鈥淒ick-Lit鈥� (thank you, Robin for the category name)." Well, was I in for a surprise. This book is not Dick-Lit nor is it in any way recognizable to me as a book written by a Philip Roth known to me. It鈥檚 actually a heartbreaking novel of historical fiction about a polio epidemic that raged through Newark, New Jersey from 1944-1945 disabling and killing many children. At the same time, WWII is raging in Europe and many sons of Newark are fighting overseas. The story mostly focuses on the polio epidemic but the war overseas is in the background throughout, coming into the foreground as parents receive word of the death of a son. Nemesis is also a story with themes relevant today with the Covid pandemic still rampant around the world.
WWII is also in the mind of Bucky Cantor, our protagonist. Bucky is an athletic and strong 23 year old playground director who is devoted to the kids under his supervision and very disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his peers.
The story begins during the summer of 1944 and we learn that summer is the season for polio. Why? At that time, no one knew but 鈥渆scaping the city鈥檚 heat entirely and being sent off to a summer camp in the mountains or the countryside was considered a child鈥檚 best protection against catching polio.鈥� The children whose parents couldn鈥檛 afford to go away for the summer would congregate on the baking asphalt of the playgrounds in the scorching heat, playing inning after inning of softball, doing exactly what they weren鈥檛 supposed to do, overexerting themselves (a possible cause of polio) drinking from the forbidden water fountains, 鈥渃rowding up against one another鈥� unmindful of how (their) imprudence might be dooming any one of (them)..鈥� And children start dying in record numbers.
"The numbers of the kids sick and dying from polio in Newark corresponded to the numbers of the dead, wounded, and missing in the real war (WWII)... because this was real war too....upon the children of Newark.鈥�
On a deeper level this story asks the age-old question after tragedy strikes,鈥淲hy?鈥� Why do certain children die from polio while others escape it鈥檚 grasp? Why do some of their older brothers die in the war in Europe? These are the questions which most human beings ask after tragedy strikes. Why him? Why my child? Why? In Newark, there were many things blamed: the heat, pests, the Jews, lack of cleanliness, certain fruits and vegetables or other foods which may have been consumed just before a child became sick. Bucky was to blame at one point for not protecting the kids. The list of things to blame and scapegoat goes on and on鈥�..because parents were desperate to find the reason for polio and to shield their child from it.
As more and more children contract Polio Newark parents become more and more angry and scared about this horrible 鈥渘emesis.鈥� Early on in the story a father, Mr. Michaels, asks why his son Alan had to die:鈥� He 鈥渁lways did his schoolwork鈥lways helped his mother. Not a selfish bone in his body. Was going to begin in September to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah. Polite. Neat. Wrote each of his brothers (fighting overseas) V-mail letters鈥� Why did Alan get polio? Why did he have to get sick and die?鈥�
With 鈥淲hy, 鈥� Who? or What? often follows. Someone or something must be responsible for tragedy. Blame must rest somewhere. Since the reason for polio was as yet unknown God is often mentioned in one way or another. As Bucky asks, after too many of the kids he knows and loves have died:
鈥淎nd where does God figure in this? Why does He set one person down in Nazi-occupied Europe with a rifle in his hands and the other in the Indian Hills dining lodge in front of a plate of macaroni and cheese? Why does He place one Weequahic child in polio-ridden Newark for the summer and another in the splendid sanctuary of the Poconos?鈥�."
Bucky, who tries so hard to take good care of the kids under his charge changes drastically over the course of the novel as does his view of God:
"Bucky's...conception of God was of an omnipotent being who was a union not of three persons in one Godhead, as in Christianity, but of two, a sick fuck and an evil genius.鈥�
Roth understands the ever so human and often very Jewish proclivity towards both self-blame and the questioning of God by previously fervent believers.
"Bucky... had to convert tragedy into guilt. There is an epidemic and he has to find a reason for it. He has to ask why鈥�..he looks desperately for a deep cause, this manic of the why, and finds the why either in God or in himself....or both鈥�
This novel and it鈥檚 questions resonated on a very personal level for me. I can recall asking why? when someone close to me died way too young or was diabled in a cruel way. I also recognize the trait of self-blame. I am an atheist so do not recognize in myself the blaming of God for tragedy, at least not as an adult.
On a side note, in my reading of many Holocaust memoirs I recall that some religious Jews were unable to believe in God any longer, for if there were a God, how could he let the Holocaust happen? They became secular Jews. While some secular Jews came to think that if they had believed in God the Holocaust might not have happened or they and their families would not have been so tragically affected by it. They became religious Jews.
My understanding of all of this is that human beings feel helpless in a world run amok and do what they can to understand and control it, whether that takes the form of self-blame, blaming God or blaming others (rightfully or wrongly). This takes different forms in different people and circumstances but seems to be universal.
鈥渁 long-standing rival; an archenemy.鈥�
鈥渁 downfall caused by an inescapable agent.鈥�
The Oxford Language Dictionary
Nemesis is the 8th book I have read by Philip Roth. I chose this book to read more or less by accident. Scanning my book shelves at home my eyes fell upon a bright yellow paperback written by Philip Roth. Roth has been under much discussion by friends on GR lately so I thought, 鈥測es, let鈥檚 read some 鈥淒ick-Lit鈥� (thank you, Robin for the category name)." Well, was I in for a surprise. This book is not Dick-Lit nor is it in any way recognizable to me as a book written by a Philip Roth known to me. It鈥檚 actually a heartbreaking novel of historical fiction about a polio epidemic that raged through Newark, New Jersey from 1944-1945 disabling and killing many children. At the same time, WWII is raging in Europe and many sons of Newark are fighting overseas. The story mostly focuses on the polio epidemic but the war overseas is in the background throughout, coming into the foreground as parents receive word of the death of a son. Nemesis is also a story with themes relevant today with the Covid pandemic still rampant around the world.
WWII is also in the mind of Bucky Cantor, our protagonist. Bucky is an athletic and strong 23 year old playground director who is devoted to the kids under his supervision and very disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his peers.
The story begins during the summer of 1944 and we learn that summer is the season for polio. Why? At that time, no one knew but 鈥渆scaping the city鈥檚 heat entirely and being sent off to a summer camp in the mountains or the countryside was considered a child鈥檚 best protection against catching polio.鈥� The children whose parents couldn鈥檛 afford to go away for the summer would congregate on the baking asphalt of the playgrounds in the scorching heat, playing inning after inning of softball, doing exactly what they weren鈥檛 supposed to do, overexerting themselves (a possible cause of polio) drinking from the forbidden water fountains, 鈥渃rowding up against one another鈥� unmindful of how (their) imprudence might be dooming any one of (them)..鈥� And children start dying in record numbers.
"The numbers of the kids sick and dying from polio in Newark corresponded to the numbers of the dead, wounded, and missing in the real war (WWII)... because this was real war too....upon the children of Newark.鈥�
On a deeper level this story asks the age-old question after tragedy strikes,鈥淲hy?鈥� Why do certain children die from polio while others escape it鈥檚 grasp? Why do some of their older brothers die in the war in Europe? These are the questions which most human beings ask after tragedy strikes. Why him? Why my child? Why? In Newark, there were many things blamed: the heat, pests, the Jews, lack of cleanliness, certain fruits and vegetables or other foods which may have been consumed just before a child became sick. Bucky was to blame at one point for not protecting the kids. The list of things to blame and scapegoat goes on and on鈥�..because parents were desperate to find the reason for polio and to shield their child from it.
As more and more children contract Polio Newark parents become more and more angry and scared about this horrible 鈥渘emesis.鈥� Early on in the story a father, Mr. Michaels, asks why his son Alan had to die:鈥� He 鈥渁lways did his schoolwork鈥lways helped his mother. Not a selfish bone in his body. Was going to begin in September to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah. Polite. Neat. Wrote each of his brothers (fighting overseas) V-mail letters鈥� Why did Alan get polio? Why did he have to get sick and die?鈥�
With 鈥淲hy, 鈥� Who? or What? often follows. Someone or something must be responsible for tragedy. Blame must rest somewhere. Since the reason for polio was as yet unknown God is often mentioned in one way or another. As Bucky asks, after too many of the kids he knows and loves have died:
鈥淎nd where does God figure in this? Why does He set one person down in Nazi-occupied Europe with a rifle in his hands and the other in the Indian Hills dining lodge in front of a plate of macaroni and cheese? Why does He place one Weequahic child in polio-ridden Newark for the summer and another in the splendid sanctuary of the Poconos?鈥�."
Bucky, who tries so hard to take good care of the kids under his charge changes drastically over the course of the novel as does his view of God:
"Bucky's...conception of God was of an omnipotent being who was a union not of three persons in one Godhead, as in Christianity, but of two, a sick fuck and an evil genius.鈥�
Roth understands the ever so human and often very Jewish proclivity towards both self-blame and the questioning of God by previously fervent believers.
"Bucky... had to convert tragedy into guilt. There is an epidemic and he has to find a reason for it. He has to ask why鈥�..he looks desperately for a deep cause, this manic of the why, and finds the why either in God or in himself....or both鈥�
This novel and it鈥檚 questions resonated on a very personal level for me. I can recall asking why? when someone close to me died way too young or was diabled in a cruel way. I also recognize the trait of self-blame. I am an atheist so do not recognize in myself the blaming of God for tragedy, at least not as an adult.
On a side note, in my reading of many Holocaust memoirs I recall that some religious Jews were unable to believe in God any longer, for if there were a God, how could he let the Holocaust happen? They became secular Jews. While some secular Jews came to think that if they had believed in God the Holocaust might not have happened or they and their families would not have been so tragically affected by it. They became religious Jews.
My understanding of all of this is that human beings feel helpless in a world run amok and do what they can to understand and control it, whether that takes the form of self-blame, blaming God or blaming others (rightfully or wrongly). This takes different forms in different people and circumstances but seems to be universal.
March 20, 2022
La Nemesi 猫 la giustizia distribuitiva riparatrice dei torti ed 猫, secondo la mitologia classica, in mano agli dei o al fato. In entrambi i casi il concetto di nemesi implica un'idea di equilibrio fra il bene e il male, un raddrizzamento dei torti o una riparazione degli eccessi, per giungere ad una cosmica equit脿.
Ma non 猫 questo il senso che appare qui, nel racconto lucido e implacabilmente nero di Roth.
L'interrogazione sulla qualit脿 del dio che permette il male peggiore, avventandosi sull'innocente (l'epidemia di polio 猫 una peste che colpisce e stronca i fanciulli nel fiore delle loro possibilit脿) 猫 l'assillo del protagonista: il giovane, onesto, benevolente Bucky Cantor che non pu貌 opporre al male inspiegabile, subdolo e irreparabile, la robusta costituzione fisica e morale della propria rettitudine e della propria capacit脿 di bene.
Sar脿 lui a farsi portatore di una sua personale particolarissima nemesi, lasciando tuttavia insoluta ogni domanda sul significato e sull'origine del male.
Magistrale partitura di Roth, ma dobbiamo essere consapevoli che qui "si va ne la citt脿 dolente" e dunque "lasciate ogni speranza o voi ch'entrate".
Ma non 猫 questo il senso che appare qui, nel racconto lucido e implacabilmente nero di Roth.
L'interrogazione sulla qualit脿 del dio che permette il male peggiore, avventandosi sull'innocente (l'epidemia di polio 猫 una peste che colpisce e stronca i fanciulli nel fiore delle loro possibilit脿) 猫 l'assillo del protagonista: il giovane, onesto, benevolente Bucky Cantor che non pu貌 opporre al male inspiegabile, subdolo e irreparabile, la robusta costituzione fisica e morale della propria rettitudine e della propria capacit脿 di bene.
Sar脿 lui a farsi portatore di una sua personale particolarissima nemesi, lasciando tuttavia insoluta ogni domanda sul significato e sull'origine del male.
Magistrale partitura di Roth, ma dobbiamo essere consapevoli che qui "si va ne la citt脿 dolente" e dunque "lasciate ogni speranza o voi ch'entrate".
February 2, 2020
Headline: Tremendous Writer Tackles... Playground Apocalypse!
This is perhaps the weakest in the Nemesis series of Roth's more modern more briefer novels--Everyman and The Humbling offering a wider array of human emotion with more surprises/anecdotal acrobatics than here, were the sole surprise is that the title refers not to a human adversary.
This is perhaps the weakest in the Nemesis series of Roth's more modern more briefer novels--Everyman and The Humbling offering a wider array of human emotion with more surprises/anecdotal acrobatics than here, were the sole surprise is that the title refers not to a human adversary.
February 26, 2016
Helle, meet Philip. Philip, meet Helle. Except of course, Philip Roth has not met me 鈥� but I have certainly met him. His is one those names that have been hovering on my horizon for years, but after abandoning Portnoy鈥檚 Complaint years ago (vowing that I鈥檇 get back to it when I was a more mature reader), I kept putting it off, suspecting he wasn鈥檛 really my kind of thing. I鈥檓 still not sure that he is, but I鈥檓 glad to have met him.
The novel is a portrait of polio and its ravaging effects in 1940s America, more specifically in a Jewish neighbourhood in Newark during the summer of 1944. As we know, polio was a nasty disease that attacked mainly children, sometimes paralyzing them, sometimes killing them. For years, nobody had any idea of how it spread, and fear became a constant side-effect. This is the background for the story, as the children around a sweltering Newark playground are trying to pass the summer while Bucky Cantor, their athletic mentor and friend, tries to ward off the epidemic and keep up everybody鈥檚 spirit. He begins to wonder what kind of god would do something like this to children and gradually ponders life choices that may or may not have cataclysmic results (hence the title).
Meanwhile, Bucky鈥檚 girlfriend is at a safe summer camp up in the cooler mountains, insisting that he join her. Their love is palpable, their happiness an almost too-happy antidote to the horror of the polio epidemic, not to mention the war in Europe, which Bucky couldn鈥檛 join because of poor eyesight. His best friends are there, and though he feels guilty for not being able to sign up, he tries to make a difference at home. But how does he choose between the children who are caught in the maelstrom of polio and his girlfriend who offers him the glimpse of a life he had previously only dreamed of?
The novel began quietly and seemed, at first, to be a general description of polio. I was mildly interested. Then Bucky entered the story, and things perked up. But Bucky doesn鈥檛 offer much in the way of interiority, and though it鈥檚 well written with sentences like:
The four o鈥檆lock sun was no less punishing than the twelve o鈥檆lock sledgehammer.
The lake was fed by natural springs. The words sounded like the name of an earthly wonder: natural springs 鈥� yet another way of saying 鈥渘o polio鈥�.
there is something flat or wooden about the storytelling. I was almost the only one in my reading group who liked the novel; everyone else felt more or less unmoved by it despite the topic. It partly has to do with Bucky鈥檚 somewhat insipid character, I believe, and his overly responsible, guilt-ridden take on life but also the aforementioned lack of true interiority. Mainly, though, it has to do with the narration. The first person narrator who begins the novel doesn鈥檛 show itself again until the end when the novel falls flat on its face to me because the voice simply tells us what happened. This framing device had the effect of sucking out the life of the rest of the story to me and left me deducting a star (which had tentatively been there for a while).
A pretty good and interesting book about a topic that I鈥檇 never read about before. It must be one of the only novels that take place between 1939 and 1945 which is not about World War II. That alone makes it an interesting portrait of a time. So thanks for the story, Philip. Not sure when we鈥檒l meet again.
The novel is a portrait of polio and its ravaging effects in 1940s America, more specifically in a Jewish neighbourhood in Newark during the summer of 1944. As we know, polio was a nasty disease that attacked mainly children, sometimes paralyzing them, sometimes killing them. For years, nobody had any idea of how it spread, and fear became a constant side-effect. This is the background for the story, as the children around a sweltering Newark playground are trying to pass the summer while Bucky Cantor, their athletic mentor and friend, tries to ward off the epidemic and keep up everybody鈥檚 spirit. He begins to wonder what kind of god would do something like this to children and gradually ponders life choices that may or may not have cataclysmic results (hence the title).
Meanwhile, Bucky鈥檚 girlfriend is at a safe summer camp up in the cooler mountains, insisting that he join her. Their love is palpable, their happiness an almost too-happy antidote to the horror of the polio epidemic, not to mention the war in Europe, which Bucky couldn鈥檛 join because of poor eyesight. His best friends are there, and though he feels guilty for not being able to sign up, he tries to make a difference at home. But how does he choose between the children who are caught in the maelstrom of polio and his girlfriend who offers him the glimpse of a life he had previously only dreamed of?
The novel began quietly and seemed, at first, to be a general description of polio. I was mildly interested. Then Bucky entered the story, and things perked up. But Bucky doesn鈥檛 offer much in the way of interiority, and though it鈥檚 well written with sentences like:
The four o鈥檆lock sun was no less punishing than the twelve o鈥檆lock sledgehammer.
The lake was fed by natural springs. The words sounded like the name of an earthly wonder: natural springs 鈥� yet another way of saying 鈥渘o polio鈥�.
there is something flat or wooden about the storytelling. I was almost the only one in my reading group who liked the novel; everyone else felt more or less unmoved by it despite the topic. It partly has to do with Bucky鈥檚 somewhat insipid character, I believe, and his overly responsible, guilt-ridden take on life but also the aforementioned lack of true interiority. Mainly, though, it has to do with the narration. The first person narrator who begins the novel doesn鈥檛 show itself again until the end when the novel falls flat on its face to me because the voice simply tells us what happened. This framing device had the effect of sucking out the life of the rest of the story to me and left me deducting a star (which had tentatively been there for a while).
A pretty good and interesting book about a topic that I鈥檇 never read about before. It must be one of the only novels that take place between 1939 and 1945 which is not about World War II. That alone makes it an interesting portrait of a time. So thanks for the story, Philip. Not sure when we鈥檒l meet again.
December 5, 2014
Driiiiin!
Suona finalmente la campanella della terza ora, Lucrezia sprofondata in uno stato di narcolessi fin dalla sua entrata a scuola quella mattina, finalmente si riscuote e apre un po di pi霉 gli occhi. Sta per arrivare il momento della sua materia preferita ,dopo la letteratura italiana, letteratura greca. Sebbene detesti la professoressa con tutto il cuore a causa della sua tracotante ignoranza e della sua perfidia, e sebbene spieghi praticamente leggendo dal libro e senza aggiungere un concetto di suo ,che sia una solenne stupidaggine (come le conferma poi il libro quando ci va a studiare), Lucrezia ascolta interessata, anche se spiega lei, perch猫 la letteratura greca le piace "assai" fin da quando balzellava sulle ginocchia del padre a sette anni implorandolo di leggergli ancora una volta il mito di Perseo e Medusa (raggiungendo livelli di eccitazione palpabili quando si arrivava a parlare di Pegaso).
Cosi appena la prof apre il libro e comincia a legger...oppps spiegare, Lucrezia tende bene le orecchie, e si concentra.
"Allora ragazzi oggi parliamo di un concetto fondamentale nella letteratura greca la 峤曃蚕蔽瓜� (si legge H媒bris), cosa 猫 la 峤曃蚕蔽瓜�? Nella trama della tragedia la 峤曃蚕蔽瓜� 猫 un evento passato che influenza in modo negativo gli eventi del presente. 脠 una "colpa" dovuta a un鈥檃zione che v矛ola leggi divine immutabili, ed 猫 la causa per cui, anche a distanza di tempo, i personaggi o la loro discendenza sono portati a commettere crimini o subire azioni malvagie. Strettamente collegata con la 谓苇渭蔚蟽喂蟼 (n茅mesis) che le consegue direttamente. Cosa 猫 la 谓苇渭蔚蟽喂蟼? Innanzitutto significa "vendetta degli dei", "ira", "sdegno" ,猫 ,quindi, la punizione giustamente inflitta dagli dei a chi si macchia di tracotanza. La 谓苇渭蔚蟽喂蟼 fa nascere nell鈥檌ndividuo proprio quei sentimenti di piet脿 e di terrore che permettono all鈥檃nimo di purificarsi da tali passioni negative che ogni uomo possiede. La catarsi finale, per Aristotele rappresenta la presa di coscienza dello spettatore, che pur comprendendo i personaggi, raggiunge questa finale consapevolezza distaccandosi dalle loro passioni per raggiungere un livello superiore di saggezza. Il vizio o la debolezza del personaggio portano necessariamente alla sua caduta in quanto predestinata (il concatenamento delle azioni sembra in qualche modo essere favorito dagli d茅i, che non agiscono direttamente, ma ex macchina). La caduta dell鈥檈roe tragico 猫 necessaria, perch茅 da un lato possiamo ammirarne la grandezza (si tratta quasi sempre di persone illustri e potenti) e dall鈥檃ltra possiamo noi stessi trarre profitto dalla storia. Insomma ragazzi la tragedia greca sembrerebbe proprio una mirabile telenovela, di quelle fatte bene"- "perch猫 ne esistono?" Pensa intanto fra s猫 e s猫 Lucrezia cercando di ricordarsene una- "solo che ha il preciso intendimento di mostrare al cittadino Greco il perfetto standard morale da seguire, che poi sembra dirgli: Senn貌 lo vedi che ti succede!"
Fine delle divagazioni.
Quando ho deciso di cominciare questo libro, sono rimasta lungamente a fissare il titolo ricordandomi appunto cosa succede in alcune "nemesi" ai miei vecchi amici Greci.
Mai nulla di piacevole, ve lo posso assicurare.
Ho quindi cominciato il libro carica di presagi, che infatti non tardano a manifestarsi:
"Il primo caso di polio quell'estate si verific貌 agli inizi di giugno, subito dopo il Memorial Day, in un quartiere italiano povero all'altro capo della citt脿 rispetto al nostro. Dall'angolo sudoccidentale di Newark, nella zona ebraica di Weequahic, noi non ne venimmo a conoscenza, e non venimmo a conoscenza nemmeno dei casi successivi, una decina, sparpagliati in quasi tutti i quartieri tranne il nostro. Solo il 4 luglio, quando in citt脿 si registravano gi脿 quaranta casi, sulla prima pagina del quotidiano della sera comparve un articolo dal titolo Autorit脿 sanitaria allerta i genitori contro la polio, in cui si riportavano i consigli alla famiglia del dottor William Kittell, direttore del servizio sanitario locale: tenere sotto stretta osservazione i propri figli e contattare un medico se un bambino mostrava sintomi come mal di testa, mal di gola, nausea, torcicollo, dolori alle articolazioni o febbre..."
Ecco infatti l' allegro incipit e poi di seguito un affascinante dissertazione sulla polio che ho spesso avuto maniera di incontrare in altri romanzi ,ma quasi sempre, come la disgrazia degna di compassione di un personaggio secondario, da tutti nominato con piet脿 e trattato con condiscendenza.
Ma ecco che mi ritrovo ad averci a che fare come protagonista! Perch茅 猫 proprio lei la Nemesi del titolo e la vera protagonista del romanzo, e che nemesi! Peccato che non ci avesse pensato uno dei tragediografi Greci! E dire che a quell' epoca la polio gi脿 esisteva...
Non incontriamo prima di quattro o cinque pagine dall' inizio il protagonista secondario del nostro romanzo e vale a dire Bucky Cantor.
Bucky Cantor 猫 il tranquillo animatore di un campo giochi finch茅 la Nemesi non decide di fare la sua conoscenza.
Perch茅 proprio con lui? Come andr脿 a finire?
Le risposte a queste domande meritano di essere lette nel libro stesso, anche se poi alla fine non 猫 detto che siano quelle definitive ne tantomeno quelle giuste.
Ma una cosa posso dirvela con certezza, il libro 猫 bellissimo.
Suona finalmente la campanella della terza ora, Lucrezia sprofondata in uno stato di narcolessi fin dalla sua entrata a scuola quella mattina, finalmente si riscuote e apre un po di pi霉 gli occhi. Sta per arrivare il momento della sua materia preferita ,dopo la letteratura italiana, letteratura greca. Sebbene detesti la professoressa con tutto il cuore a causa della sua tracotante ignoranza e della sua perfidia, e sebbene spieghi praticamente leggendo dal libro e senza aggiungere un concetto di suo ,che sia una solenne stupidaggine (come le conferma poi il libro quando ci va a studiare), Lucrezia ascolta interessata, anche se spiega lei, perch猫 la letteratura greca le piace "assai" fin da quando balzellava sulle ginocchia del padre a sette anni implorandolo di leggergli ancora una volta il mito di Perseo e Medusa (raggiungendo livelli di eccitazione palpabili quando si arrivava a parlare di Pegaso).
Cosi appena la prof apre il libro e comincia a legger...oppps spiegare, Lucrezia tende bene le orecchie, e si concentra.
"Allora ragazzi oggi parliamo di un concetto fondamentale nella letteratura greca la 峤曃蚕蔽瓜� (si legge H媒bris), cosa 猫 la 峤曃蚕蔽瓜�? Nella trama della tragedia la 峤曃蚕蔽瓜� 猫 un evento passato che influenza in modo negativo gli eventi del presente. 脠 una "colpa" dovuta a un鈥檃zione che v矛ola leggi divine immutabili, ed 猫 la causa per cui, anche a distanza di tempo, i personaggi o la loro discendenza sono portati a commettere crimini o subire azioni malvagie. Strettamente collegata con la 谓苇渭蔚蟽喂蟼 (n茅mesis) che le consegue direttamente. Cosa 猫 la 谓苇渭蔚蟽喂蟼? Innanzitutto significa "vendetta degli dei", "ira", "sdegno" ,猫 ,quindi, la punizione giustamente inflitta dagli dei a chi si macchia di tracotanza. La 谓苇渭蔚蟽喂蟼 fa nascere nell鈥檌ndividuo proprio quei sentimenti di piet脿 e di terrore che permettono all鈥檃nimo di purificarsi da tali passioni negative che ogni uomo possiede. La catarsi finale, per Aristotele rappresenta la presa di coscienza dello spettatore, che pur comprendendo i personaggi, raggiunge questa finale consapevolezza distaccandosi dalle loro passioni per raggiungere un livello superiore di saggezza. Il vizio o la debolezza del personaggio portano necessariamente alla sua caduta in quanto predestinata (il concatenamento delle azioni sembra in qualche modo essere favorito dagli d茅i, che non agiscono direttamente, ma ex macchina). La caduta dell鈥檈roe tragico 猫 necessaria, perch茅 da un lato possiamo ammirarne la grandezza (si tratta quasi sempre di persone illustri e potenti) e dall鈥檃ltra possiamo noi stessi trarre profitto dalla storia. Insomma ragazzi la tragedia greca sembrerebbe proprio una mirabile telenovela, di quelle fatte bene"- "perch猫 ne esistono?" Pensa intanto fra s猫 e s猫 Lucrezia cercando di ricordarsene una- "solo che ha il preciso intendimento di mostrare al cittadino Greco il perfetto standard morale da seguire, che poi sembra dirgli: Senn貌 lo vedi che ti succede!"
Fine delle divagazioni.
Quando ho deciso di cominciare questo libro, sono rimasta lungamente a fissare il titolo ricordandomi appunto cosa succede in alcune "nemesi" ai miei vecchi amici Greci.
Mai nulla di piacevole, ve lo posso assicurare.
Ho quindi cominciato il libro carica di presagi, che infatti non tardano a manifestarsi:
"Il primo caso di polio quell'estate si verific貌 agli inizi di giugno, subito dopo il Memorial Day, in un quartiere italiano povero all'altro capo della citt脿 rispetto al nostro. Dall'angolo sudoccidentale di Newark, nella zona ebraica di Weequahic, noi non ne venimmo a conoscenza, e non venimmo a conoscenza nemmeno dei casi successivi, una decina, sparpagliati in quasi tutti i quartieri tranne il nostro. Solo il 4 luglio, quando in citt脿 si registravano gi脿 quaranta casi, sulla prima pagina del quotidiano della sera comparve un articolo dal titolo Autorit脿 sanitaria allerta i genitori contro la polio, in cui si riportavano i consigli alla famiglia del dottor William Kittell, direttore del servizio sanitario locale: tenere sotto stretta osservazione i propri figli e contattare un medico se un bambino mostrava sintomi come mal di testa, mal di gola, nausea, torcicollo, dolori alle articolazioni o febbre..."
Ecco infatti l' allegro incipit e poi di seguito un affascinante dissertazione sulla polio che ho spesso avuto maniera di incontrare in altri romanzi ,ma quasi sempre, come la disgrazia degna di compassione di un personaggio secondario, da tutti nominato con piet脿 e trattato con condiscendenza.
Ma ecco che mi ritrovo ad averci a che fare come protagonista! Perch茅 猫 proprio lei la Nemesi del titolo e la vera protagonista del romanzo, e che nemesi! Peccato che non ci avesse pensato uno dei tragediografi Greci! E dire che a quell' epoca la polio gi脿 esisteva...
Non incontriamo prima di quattro o cinque pagine dall' inizio il protagonista secondario del nostro romanzo e vale a dire Bucky Cantor.
Bucky Cantor 猫 il tranquillo animatore di un campo giochi finch茅 la Nemesi non decide di fare la sua conoscenza.
Perch茅 proprio con lui? Come andr脿 a finire?
Le risposte a queste domande meritano di essere lette nel libro stesso, anche se poi alla fine non 猫 detto che siano quelle definitive ne tantomeno quelle giuste.
Ma una cosa posso dirvela con certezza, il libro 猫 bellissimo.
August 23, 2018
Roth can tell you a lot about Newark, New Jersey. It was a perfect backdrop to his Plot Against America and it works here in a more nuanced plot. The story takes our protagonist from a summer job supervising kids at a playground during the war to the middle of a polio outbreak in his own neighborhood.
I feel on dangerous ground describing any more of the story. The details of day to day life in Jewish Newark sound authentic and Roth, having been raised there, needed only to mine his memories rather than do heavy research. One letter to the New York Times suggested that the encounter here with polio parallels the Jewish experiences with the holocaust in Europe. For me, that rings true as God's presence or absence is seen from many perspectives and haunts the final chapters.
My GR friend David Schaafsma's review can provides some very interesting context and points Roth fans might want to consider. /review/show...
I feel on dangerous ground describing any more of the story. The details of day to day life in Jewish Newark sound authentic and Roth, having been raised there, needed only to mine his memories rather than do heavy research. One letter to the New York Times suggested that the encounter here with polio parallels the Jewish experiences with the holocaust in Europe. For me, that rings true as God's presence or absence is seen from many perspectives and haunts the final chapters.
My GR friend David Schaafsma's review can provides some very interesting context and points Roth fans might want to consider. /review/show...
April 30, 2020
This is a short book, just over five hours or so in the audio version. I had gotten up to page 128 and sensed tragedy coming. Since I couldn't stand the suspense, I turned to the e-book from the National Emergency library. I started reading faster and faster, until I finally finished in the wee hours of the morning. (Actually the wee hours had begun getting bigger again). Oh, my goodness! Did I read so fast because I could just keep pushing the pages up and away? Maybe -- but the last book I read this fast was not an e-book; it was , and in that case, too, I couldn't tolerate being in limbo. (Is bardo ever used that way? Figuratively?)
Nemesis is about an epidemic. For that reason it reached out from my Audible queue and grabbed me when I went to see what to listen to next. It was the polio epidemic of 1944. But who knew there had been a polio epidemic of 1944?
The key correspondence to our pandemic today is the lack of knowledge about the disease at the time and the large amount of verbiage emanating from public officials and authority figures -- well-meant, intended to forestall panic and authoritatively uttered. And the many people making decisions based on what they were told.
I read that the author wanted to explore the impact of chance -- fortune, luck -- on people's lives and deaths, here, meaning some were in the path of the disease while others fortuitously escaped, depending on where fate had plunked them down.
In this book, mischievous misinformation isn't part of the mix.
An example of the effect of fortune in our times: Boris Johnson contracted COVID 19, after which the trajectory of Great Britain's pandemic response seemed to shift and diverge from that of the U.S. To the contrary, Donald Trump never had the virus (so far as we know.) A similar occurrence would be the diminution of homophobia in a conservative politician whose beloved child has come out to him.
In this book Roth is also dealing with theodicy and with a protagonist for whom (according to the Roth stand-in) Fortune = God.
"Theodicy" = "God" + "justice" ("dik膿"), and is often referred to as "the problem of evil:" How do we resolve the existence of evil with the existence of a good and loving God?
The forces aligned a little too neatly against the protagonist in this book, though, and in that I saw not the hand of the Lord but the hand of Philip Roth. And a protagonist punishing himself according to a 1950s moral code. All of which made the book just a little bit less than perfect. 4 1/2 stars.
Everybody should read this. I emailed Audible.com to reinstate Nemesis in their ranks of available audiobooks and told my public library the same thing. Although the library doesn't have the downloadable audiobook, they do have the audio CDs, unfortunately unavailable currently.
Thanks once again to the for making the e-book available at no cost and with no queue.
I'm not the only one noticing Nemesis:
Nemesis is about an epidemic. For that reason it reached out from my Audible queue and grabbed me when I went to see what to listen to next. It was the polio epidemic of 1944. But who knew there had been a polio epidemic of 1944?
The key correspondence to our pandemic today is the lack of knowledge about the disease at the time and the large amount of verbiage emanating from public officials and authority figures -- well-meant, intended to forestall panic and authoritatively uttered. And the many people making decisions based on what they were told.
I read that the author wanted to explore the impact of chance -- fortune, luck -- on people's lives and deaths, here, meaning some were in the path of the disease while others fortuitously escaped, depending on where fate had plunked them down.
In this book, mischievous misinformation isn't part of the mix.
An example of the effect of fortune in our times: Boris Johnson contracted COVID 19, after which the trajectory of Great Britain's pandemic response seemed to shift and diverge from that of the U.S. To the contrary, Donald Trump never had the virus (so far as we know.) A similar occurrence would be the diminution of homophobia in a conservative politician whose beloved child has come out to him.
In this book Roth is also dealing with theodicy and with a protagonist for whom (according to the Roth stand-in) Fortune = God.
"Theodicy" = "God" + "justice" ("dik膿"), and is often referred to as "the problem of evil:" How do we resolve the existence of evil with the existence of a good and loving God?
The forces aligned a little too neatly against the protagonist in this book, though, and in that I saw not the hand of the Lord but the hand of Philip Roth. And a protagonist punishing himself according to a 1950s moral code. All of which made the book just a little bit less than perfect. 4 1/2 stars.
Everybody should read this. I emailed Audible.com to reinstate Nemesis in their ranks of available audiobooks and told my public library the same thing. Although the library doesn't have the downloadable audiobook, they do have the audio CDs, unfortunately unavailable currently.
Thanks once again to the for making the e-book available at no cost and with no queue.
I'm not the only one noticing Nemesis:
March 27, 2022
Il protagonista di questo ultimo romanzo di Philip Roth mi ricorda molto Markus Messner, il protagonista di Indignazione. Come lui Bucky Cantor 猫 giovane, forte, di sani principi, adorato dai nonni che lo hanno cresciuto dopo che sua madre 猫 morta di parto, un ragazzo di successo, 猫 animatore di un campo giochi che si dedica con tutto s茅 stesso ai ragazzini che allena. Bucky 猫 innamorato ricambiato di Marcia, una bella ragazza anch鈥檈ssa piena di pregi, di ottima famiglia, i due hanno uno splendente futuro insieme.
Un evento imprevisto, una epidemia di poliomielite, si abbatte nell'estate del 1944 su Newark e comincia a falcidiare gli indifesi alunni di Bucky. Questo evento scatena emozioni profonde quali paura, panico, rabbia, confusione, sofferenza e dolore, quelle stesse che abbiamo vissuto in questi anni di pandemia. Ma a parte le riflessioni che rendono il romanzo di un鈥檃ttualit脿 e di una forza uniche -letto oggi-, il libro scava nel tormento che gli eventi scatenano in Bucky, ebreo osservante, che si ribella contro quel Dio carogna che permette tutto ci貌, che semina la morte nelle vite esili di tanti bambini: quale Dio potrebbe permettere ci貌? Il tormento interiore di Bucky 猫 narrato con intensit脿, in modo come al solito sublime, ed 猫 tanto forte che porta Bucky verso l鈥檃nnientamento di tutto quello che 猫 ed 猫 stato, perch茅 scervellarsi per trovare di chi sia la colpa di quanto accade porta a un risultato drammatico che distrugger脿 l鈥檈sistenza di Bucky e di tutti coloro che lo amano.
Si tratta dell鈥檜ltimo romanzo scritto da Philip Roth, che contiene ancora una volta quei temi che hanno fatto di lui lo scrittore incommensurabile che conosciamo: il senso di colpa che il dio degli ebrei inietta, come un liquido velenoso nel sangue, nell鈥檃nimo umano e che ossessiona gli uomini per tutta la vita, riuscendo a lasciare soltanto crolli e macerie dietro di s茅. E鈥� il peso schiacciante dell鈥� 鈥渆breitudine鈥�.
Un evento imprevisto, una epidemia di poliomielite, si abbatte nell'estate del 1944 su Newark e comincia a falcidiare gli indifesi alunni di Bucky. Questo evento scatena emozioni profonde quali paura, panico, rabbia, confusione, sofferenza e dolore, quelle stesse che abbiamo vissuto in questi anni di pandemia. Ma a parte le riflessioni che rendono il romanzo di un鈥檃ttualit脿 e di una forza uniche -letto oggi-, il libro scava nel tormento che gli eventi scatenano in Bucky, ebreo osservante, che si ribella contro quel Dio carogna che permette tutto ci貌, che semina la morte nelle vite esili di tanti bambini: quale Dio potrebbe permettere ci貌? Il tormento interiore di Bucky 猫 narrato con intensit脿, in modo come al solito sublime, ed 猫 tanto forte che porta Bucky verso l鈥檃nnientamento di tutto quello che 猫 ed 猫 stato, perch茅 scervellarsi per trovare di chi sia la colpa di quanto accade porta a un risultato drammatico che distrugger脿 l鈥檈sistenza di Bucky e di tutti coloro che lo amano.
Si tratta dell鈥檜ltimo romanzo scritto da Philip Roth, che contiene ancora una volta quei temi che hanno fatto di lui lo scrittore incommensurabile che conosciamo: il senso di colpa che il dio degli ebrei inietta, come un liquido velenoso nel sangue, nell鈥檃nimo umano e che ossessiona gli uomini per tutta la vita, riuscendo a lasciare soltanto crolli e macerie dietro di s茅. E鈥� il peso schiacciante dell鈥� 鈥渆breitudine鈥�.
January 19, 2016
N茅mesis es una novela que se desarrolla durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial y que sin duda no dejar谩 indiferente a nadie. Sobre lo dura que fue la p贸leo durante los veranos de los a帽os treinta y cuarenta mientras la guerra ten铆a lugar, es una novela con un ritmo trepidante, con un protagonista muy bien construido y con una historia que no dejar谩 indiferente a nadie.
Estamos ante una novela que cuenta con un giro incre铆ble al final, que deja con la boca abierta y que demuestra la virtud del autor a la hora de escribir mezclando dos tipos de narradores (algo que se descubre al final).
El personaje de Bucky me ha parecido sumamente fascinante, construido en torno a su tormento por la culpabilidad que siente tanto por no haber ido a la guerra como por las muertes de sus alumnxs por la p贸leo. Es un personaje redondo, fuerte, con una voz que se desmarca de lo que estamos acostumbradxs y que deja con ganas de m谩s. Me ha encantado ver su evoluci贸n y observar la capacidad que tiene el autor de construirlo.
Sin duda N茅mesis ha sido una novela fascinante, que me ha dejado con ganas de leer m谩s obras del autor y sumamente recomendable. Es de esas lecturas duras, reales, cercanas, pero que no se olvidan y que nos hacen recordar aquellos a帽os 30 y 40 donde lxs ni帽xs mor铆an por la p贸leo y los adultos por la guerra.
Estamos ante una novela que cuenta con un giro incre铆ble al final, que deja con la boca abierta y que demuestra la virtud del autor a la hora de escribir mezclando dos tipos de narradores (algo que se descubre al final).
El personaje de Bucky me ha parecido sumamente fascinante, construido en torno a su tormento por la culpabilidad que siente tanto por no haber ido a la guerra como por las muertes de sus alumnxs por la p贸leo. Es un personaje redondo, fuerte, con una voz que se desmarca de lo que estamos acostumbradxs y que deja con ganas de m谩s. Me ha encantado ver su evoluci贸n y observar la capacidad que tiene el autor de construirlo.
Sin duda N茅mesis ha sido una novela fascinante, que me ha dejado con ganas de leer m谩s obras del autor y sumamente recomendable. Es de esas lecturas duras, reales, cercanas, pero que no se olvidan y que nos hacen recordar aquellos a帽os 30 y 40 donde lxs ni帽xs mor铆an por la p贸leo y los adultos por la guerra.
April 1, 2020
The Petrifying Fear of Polio in 1944 Newark, NJ, USA
As war raged overseas in 1944, the U.S. was fighting against the polio epidemic, particularly in its largest cities, such as Newark and its large Jewish community. In this short novel, probably Philip Roth's last one, he explores the effects on a community when a lurking, unseen evil is the enemy: fear, panic, loss of faith in God. Polio is a virus, or infectious disease, that can cause severe weakness in muscles and paralysis. No vaccine for polio was available until 1955. Roth really captures a fear of pestilence from its infancy to its growth to its maturity in several heinous forms.
Bucky Cantor is Roth's 23-year-old virile, clean-cut playground director who is not serving in the war due to his bad eyesight. He falls in love with a home girl, who is working as a counselor at a Jewish summer camp, and gets engaged. The virus (infectious disease) hits his playground and his girlfriend insists he come stay at her camp away from the spread of polio which has not hit their camp.
Through Bucky, we see first hand just about all imaginable ravages of the creeping Polio antagonist, mentally, emotionally and physically.
It's a stirring tale of the pernicious paralysis caused by a spreading virus and the pressurized fear of the disease as it spreads through and consumes an entire community.
As war raged overseas in 1944, the U.S. was fighting against the polio epidemic, particularly in its largest cities, such as Newark and its large Jewish community. In this short novel, probably Philip Roth's last one, he explores the effects on a community when a lurking, unseen evil is the enemy: fear, panic, loss of faith in God. Polio is a virus, or infectious disease, that can cause severe weakness in muscles and paralysis. No vaccine for polio was available until 1955. Roth really captures a fear of pestilence from its infancy to its growth to its maturity in several heinous forms.
Bucky Cantor is Roth's 23-year-old virile, clean-cut playground director who is not serving in the war due to his bad eyesight. He falls in love with a home girl, who is working as a counselor at a Jewish summer camp, and gets engaged. The virus (infectious disease) hits his playground and his girlfriend insists he come stay at her camp away from the spread of polio which has not hit their camp.
Through Bucky, we see first hand just about all imaginable ravages of the creeping Polio antagonist, mentally, emotionally and physically.
It's a stirring tale of the pernicious paralysis caused by a spreading virus and the pressurized fear of the disease as it spreads through and consumes an entire community.
May 21, 2014
Roth鈥檚 last book and my first Roth鈥檚 book. As any of my school teachers could tell you 鈥� I have absolutely zero respect for authority, so I approached Philip Roth with exactly as much reverence as I would have for any first time writer in their 20s. Additionally, I find Roth鈥檚 rabid fanboys the most annoying demographic ever, so if you are one of them you might want to do yourself a favour and stop reading right here.
Alright, let鈥檚 see what this male Joyce Carol Oates has to offer. As a side note 鈥� isn鈥檛 it interesting how Oates is literally being accused of being over-prolific but no one says that about Roth?
This is a review of Nemesis but I鈥檓 also now reading American Pastoral and it鈥檚 hard not to comment on some obvious similarities. I hope the remaining 30 books of his are about something else. So what do we have here? An all-round American golden boy (even if Jewish) 鈥� athletic, honourable, burdened with a great sense of duty, decent and deprived of any sense of humour, whose life comes apart due to some perverse tragedy that God Roth sends his way. Roth, himself generously endowed in the irony department, deprives his golden boys of any sense of it, which in turn makes them so tragic. They cannot comprehend their own failure and the injustice of fate.
The above is true for both American Pastoral (or at least the first 120 pages of it I鈥檝e read so far) and Nemesis. But let鈥檚 now focus on the latter one. Roth starts it with a plural first person narrator but, thank God, it鈥檚 just an opening gambit, quickly abandoned. I鈥檓 all for experimentation but a plural first person narrator is mind numbing.
It鈥檚 a summer in 1940s and the town of Newark is struck with an epidemic of polio. The first half of the book is gripping, emotional and authentic. It鈥檚 the sort of story that you have to keep reminding yourself is just a book of fiction so as not to cry for all the broken lives there. The only false note there was Bucky鈥檚, the book鈥檚 hero, questioning and eventually rejecting God. It just seemed so out of character for him that for a moment he sounded like a mouthpiece for someone else.
The story is still told by a rather mysterious first person narrator, who is really just an insignificant observer (another similarity with American Pastoral) and we forget about him until the final part of this book where he suddenly makes his presence known and comes forward to literally explain the whole thing to us. Now, I can see that this sort of fourth wall breaking is very much part of Roth鈥檚 style but completely unprepared at the time I had a very 鈥榃TF鈥� reaction to it. Completely abandoning the golden rule of 鈥榮how, not tell鈥�, the narrator proceeds to explain to the reader what Bucky was all about and what it all meant, how his big sense of responsibility was the cause of his downfall, etc., just in case the reader missed the point. Frankly, I was irritated and felt I was being patronised by the freaking narrator who didn鈥檛 trust me to get the book without him beating me on the head with the explanation. It didn鈥檛 work for me, it took me out of the story and also I鈥檓 out of a job as a reviewer, because Roth鈥檚 already reviewed the book in its final chapters. Something similar happens in American Pastoral, where the narrator is at the same the author who writes the book but it鈥檚 done a lot better there. Clever, even.
All in all 鈥� great book, shame about the ending.
PS. My favourite quote - 鈥淪o unschooled was he in extravagance that he took the presence in a house of more than one bathroom as the height of luxurious living.鈥� This was true for me as well. I remember when I first visited a house with two bathrooms I was absolutely blown away and decided it was a benchmark of having made it in life.
PPS. In an interview posted on Paris review website Roth says: 鈥淏ut you know, I don鈥檛 believe that the biography of a writer has anything to do with his books.鈥�
I mean, LOL, Roth, LOL. (In another interview from 2010 Roth says he would never stop writing because how could he).
Alright, let鈥檚 see what this male Joyce Carol Oates has to offer. As a side note 鈥� isn鈥檛 it interesting how Oates is literally being accused of being over-prolific but no one says that about Roth?
This is a review of Nemesis but I鈥檓 also now reading American Pastoral and it鈥檚 hard not to comment on some obvious similarities. I hope the remaining 30 books of his are about something else. So what do we have here? An all-round American golden boy (even if Jewish) 鈥� athletic, honourable, burdened with a great sense of duty, decent and deprived of any sense of humour, whose life comes apart due to some perverse tragedy that God Roth sends his way. Roth, himself generously endowed in the irony department, deprives his golden boys of any sense of it, which in turn makes them so tragic. They cannot comprehend their own failure and the injustice of fate.
The above is true for both American Pastoral (or at least the first 120 pages of it I鈥檝e read so far) and Nemesis. But let鈥檚 now focus on the latter one. Roth starts it with a plural first person narrator but, thank God, it鈥檚 just an opening gambit, quickly abandoned. I鈥檓 all for experimentation but a plural first person narrator is mind numbing.
It鈥檚 a summer in 1940s and the town of Newark is struck with an epidemic of polio. The first half of the book is gripping, emotional and authentic. It鈥檚 the sort of story that you have to keep reminding yourself is just a book of fiction so as not to cry for all the broken lives there. The only false note there was Bucky鈥檚, the book鈥檚 hero, questioning and eventually rejecting God. It just seemed so out of character for him that for a moment he sounded like a mouthpiece for someone else.
The story is still told by a rather mysterious first person narrator, who is really just an insignificant observer (another similarity with American Pastoral) and we forget about him until the final part of this book where he suddenly makes his presence known and comes forward to literally explain the whole thing to us. Now, I can see that this sort of fourth wall breaking is very much part of Roth鈥檚 style but completely unprepared at the time I had a very 鈥榃TF鈥� reaction to it. Completely abandoning the golden rule of 鈥榮how, not tell鈥�, the narrator proceeds to explain to the reader what Bucky was all about and what it all meant, how his big sense of responsibility was the cause of his downfall, etc., just in case the reader missed the point. Frankly, I was irritated and felt I was being patronised by the freaking narrator who didn鈥檛 trust me to get the book without him beating me on the head with the explanation. It didn鈥檛 work for me, it took me out of the story and also I鈥檓 out of a job as a reviewer, because Roth鈥檚 already reviewed the book in its final chapters. Something similar happens in American Pastoral, where the narrator is at the same the author who writes the book but it鈥檚 done a lot better there. Clever, even.
All in all 鈥� great book, shame about the ending.
PS. My favourite quote - 鈥淪o unschooled was he in extravagance that he took the presence in a house of more than one bathroom as the height of luxurious living.鈥� This was true for me as well. I remember when I first visited a house with two bathrooms I was absolutely blown away and decided it was a benchmark of having made it in life.
PPS. In an interview posted on Paris review website Roth says: 鈥淏ut you know, I don鈥檛 believe that the biography of a writer has anything to do with his books.鈥�
I mean, LOL, Roth, LOL. (In another interview from 2010 Roth says he would never stop writing because how could he).
March 7, 2019
Das war ziemlich entt盲uschend. Bislang hatte ich noch nichts von Philip Roth gelesen, und daher war ich auf die oft gepriesene Erz盲hlkunst des Dauergeheimtipps f眉r den Nobelpreis gespannt. Ich konnte hier aber weder stilistisch, konzeptionell oder sprachlich etwas Besonderes erkennen. Die Geschichte der Polio-Epidemie im Jahr 1944 an der Ostk眉ste der USA wird aus Sicht des 23-j盲hrigen Sportlehrers Bucky Cantor erz盲hlt, der in der ersten H盲lfte des Buchs f眉r die Betreuung der Gemeindesportpl盲tze in den Sommerferien und im dritten Viertel f眉r Summercamp-Betreuung in den W盲ldern verantwortlich ist. Roth schreibt 眉ber ihn:
Bucky war weder hochintelligent [鈥 noch im Entferntesten unbek眉mmert. Er war ein weitgehend humorloser Mann, der sich zwar ausdr眉cken konnte, aber nicht geistreich war, der nie etwas Satirisches oder Ironisches sagte und kaum je einen Witz machte oder im Scherz sprach.鈥�
Dieser letzte Satz beschreibt nicht nur Bucky, sondern auch mein Eindruck vom Buch generell. Es ist in klassischer amerikanischer Art erz盲hlt, auf einer Erz盲hlebene, nett ausgedr眉ckt, aber wenig reflektiert oder geistreich, chronologisch wie ein Katastrophenschutzbericht. Au脽erdem st枚rte mich die Vielzahl an Wiederholungen und unn枚tigen Informationen zum Beschreiben eines Sachverhalts, wie in dem oben stehenden Satz (Satire, Ironie, Witz, Scherz! Alla hopp, ich hab鈥檚 kapiert, der Typ war ne Spa脽bremse). Der erste Geschlechtsakt mit seiner Freundin geschah dann vor Jahren im Sp盲tsommer 鈥渁n einem Samstag um kurz vor Vier in dem Bett, mit den vier gedrechselten Pfosten und dem Baldachin mit Blumenmuster鈥�. Das h枚rt sich f眉r mich mehr wie eine Bildbeschreibung aus einem IKEA-Katalog an.
Inhaltlich habe ich nicht verstanden, was Roth mit dieser Geschichte eigentlich sagen wollte. Bucky ist ein Anti-Hiob. Buckys Vorstellung von Gott war nicht die 鈥渧on einem allm盲chtigen Wesen, das keine Dreifaltigkeit war im Christentum, sondern eine Zweifaltigkeit - die Vereinigung eines perversen Arschlochs mit einem b枚sartigen Genie鈥�. Wirklich kein sehr geistreiche Ausdrucksweise. Reihenweise fallen die Kinder in diesem Sommer dem Poliovirus zum Opfer und der Pratogonist setzt am Ende alles dran, die Trag枚die in seine Schuld umzuwandeln. Ein von mir gesch盲tzter Kritiker lobte das Buch als tr枚stend. Ich habe selten so etwas trostloses gelesen, wenn es um die Frage geht, wie man als Mensch dem 眉berm盲chtigen Elend in der Welt gegen眉berstehen soll. Mir hat das Buch nicht gefallen.
Bucky war weder hochintelligent [鈥 noch im Entferntesten unbek眉mmert. Er war ein weitgehend humorloser Mann, der sich zwar ausdr眉cken konnte, aber nicht geistreich war, der nie etwas Satirisches oder Ironisches sagte und kaum je einen Witz machte oder im Scherz sprach.鈥�
Dieser letzte Satz beschreibt nicht nur Bucky, sondern auch mein Eindruck vom Buch generell. Es ist in klassischer amerikanischer Art erz盲hlt, auf einer Erz盲hlebene, nett ausgedr眉ckt, aber wenig reflektiert oder geistreich, chronologisch wie ein Katastrophenschutzbericht. Au脽erdem st枚rte mich die Vielzahl an Wiederholungen und unn枚tigen Informationen zum Beschreiben eines Sachverhalts, wie in dem oben stehenden Satz (Satire, Ironie, Witz, Scherz! Alla hopp, ich hab鈥檚 kapiert, der Typ war ne Spa脽bremse). Der erste Geschlechtsakt mit seiner Freundin geschah dann vor Jahren im Sp盲tsommer 鈥渁n einem Samstag um kurz vor Vier in dem Bett, mit den vier gedrechselten Pfosten und dem Baldachin mit Blumenmuster鈥�. Das h枚rt sich f眉r mich mehr wie eine Bildbeschreibung aus einem IKEA-Katalog an.
Inhaltlich habe ich nicht verstanden, was Roth mit dieser Geschichte eigentlich sagen wollte. Bucky ist ein Anti-Hiob. Buckys Vorstellung von Gott war nicht die 鈥渧on einem allm盲chtigen Wesen, das keine Dreifaltigkeit war im Christentum, sondern eine Zweifaltigkeit - die Vereinigung eines perversen Arschlochs mit einem b枚sartigen Genie鈥�. Wirklich kein sehr geistreiche Ausdrucksweise. Reihenweise fallen die Kinder in diesem Sommer dem Poliovirus zum Opfer und der Pratogonist setzt am Ende alles dran, die Trag枚die in seine Schuld umzuwandeln. Ein von mir gesch盲tzter Kritiker lobte das Buch als tr枚stend. Ich habe selten so etwas trostloses gelesen, wenn es um die Frage geht, wie man als Mensch dem 眉berm盲chtigen Elend in der Welt gegen眉berstehen soll. Mir hat das Buch nicht gefallen.
June 4, 2018
讴鬲丕亘蹖 丿乇亘丕乇賴鈥屰� 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖貙 賲乇诏貙 賵馗蹖賮賴鈥屰� 丕禺賱丕賯蹖貙 毓丿丕賱鬲 禺丿丕賵賳丿貙 毓卮賯 賵 爻乇爻禺鬲蹖.
亘賳馗乇賲 丌孬丕乇蹖 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇賳丿 讴賴 賵丕噩亘 丕爻鬲 丿丕賳卮噩賵蹖丕賳 倬夭卮讴蹖 亘丕 丌賳鈥屬囏� 賲賵丕噩賴 卮賵賳丿貨 鬲丕 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖 賮賯胤 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖 賳亘丕卮丿 亘乇丕蹖卮丕賳貙 鬲丕 丕亘毓丕丿 鬲丨鬲鈥屫ж屫� 賯乇丕乇 鈥屭辟佖団€屰� 夭賳丿诏蹖賽 亘蹖賲丕乇 乇丕 丿乇讴 讴賳賳丿. 賲孬賱 芦乇蹖卮 賯乇賲夭禄 讴賵乇賵爻丕賵丕貨 賲孬賱 賴賲蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘貙 蹖丕 芦蹖讴蹖 賲孬賱 賴賲賴禄蹖 賮蹖賱蹖倬 乇丕孬.
亘賳馗乇賲 丌孬丕乇蹖 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇賳丿 讴賴 賵丕噩亘 丕爻鬲 丿丕賳卮噩賵蹖丕賳 倬夭卮讴蹖 亘丕 丌賳鈥屬囏� 賲賵丕噩賴 卮賵賳丿貨 鬲丕 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖 賮賯胤 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖 賳亘丕卮丿 亘乇丕蹖卮丕賳貙 鬲丕 丕亘毓丕丿 鬲丨鬲鈥屫ж屫� 賯乇丕乇 鈥屭辟佖団€屰� 夭賳丿诏蹖賽 亘蹖賲丕乇 乇丕 丿乇讴 讴賳賳丿. 賲孬賱 芦乇蹖卮 賯乇賲夭禄 讴賵乇賵爻丕賵丕貨 賲孬賱 賴賲蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘貙 蹖丕 芦蹖讴蹖 賲孬賱 賴賲賴禄蹖 賮蹖賱蹖倬 乇丕孬.
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