Roth on Political-Correctness...

books:


	• The Human Stain: A Novel Philip Roth Vintage, 2001 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 194 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

America Unveiled

The last Roth I read was Portnoy's Complaint, when it was first released and was comsidered ever so scandalous. Maybe I was too young or maybe it was truly a mediocre book, but I was not at all impressed.

My father (a wise Eiropean who knows me too well) bought The Human Stain for me so I thought I would give it a chance - and I'm very glad I did. This book digs deep into my soul and forces me to question the stains that make me human. What are those stains? How have they transformed my life? Are they stains that need to be bleached out or should they be worn with pride? All these questions and so many more are raised by Roth in this most probing novel.

In addition, I have been treated to some truly brilliantly developed characters. Although the motives of some are opaque to me, they in some way are reasonable. After all, we do often accept that which we cannot understand and grow from that acceptance.

Get this book. It will make you think. Scary!!!!!!!!

for more information click here

Roth's Finest

Having read quite a few of his books (American Pastoral, Operation Shylock, Our Gang, The Plot Against America, The Ghost Writer, etc), i can state emphatcially that this is his most exceptional... at least of the one's i've read. There is something increadibly captivating about this story that immediately draws the reader in. Roth creates a wonderfully alive and vital cast of characters, each with charms and/or idiosyncrasies that delight. But is this story primarily about race and identity, as it may seem, on the surface, to be? Or is it about something more profound yet basic... the ability of wounded and rejected individuals to connect to one another, and the effects of that connection on the world and people that have rejected them? Are we being asked to look a little bit deeper, into the very essence of love, friendship, affection, as well as the importance of human connection? Are we being shown the ability of the rejected and outcast to love unconditionally... an ability that perhaps only they have? I highly recommend this wonderful book, and would urge those who read it to look a bit deeper, for there I believe Roth's essential message can be found.

for more information click here

Roth on Political-Correctness...

Harold Bloom considers Philip Roth one of America's best writers. Perhaps Roth wrote The Human Stain for Bloom. It certainly centers on one of Bloom's favorite themes: the decline of the level of education in America. Coleman Silk is not an easy professor - he goes against the popular belief that, if a subject is hard, universities should refrain from teaching it. He has little patience with a female student who does not wish to read Aristophanes because it is offensive to women - or with the pseudo-enlightened teacher who supports her decision. The world of The Human Stain is an increasingly petty, judgmental, and hypocritical America during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. In this era of hyper political-correctness, Coleman asks if the students who never bothered to show up for his class are "spooks." When it turns out that the two students are African-American, Coleman's enemies on campus turn it into a racial epithet in order to disgrace him. The joke: Coleman is himself African-American, and has been "passing" for white ever since his twenties.

The Human Stain has one of the more sensational plots to be found in a Philip Roth novel, which is perhaps why it was made into a movie. The heart of the story focuses on the relationship between the 71-year-old Coleman, and his 32-year-old lover, Faunia. This is one of Roth's favorite themes: an older man having a good time with a younger woman. Of course, everything ends badly. That is either the fault of Coleman, America, or both.

The interesting thing about the novel is that it is told from the perspective of Nathan Zuckerman. Yet Zuckerman writes with the authority of a third-person-omniscient narrator. He describes thoughts in his characters' heads and scenes that he never witnessed. Eventually, Zuckerman is forced to admit that he is just using his imagination to make things up because that is his job.

There are weaknesses to the book. Roth gives into his desire to pontificate. He is in love with his own writing style and the book would have benefited from some more editing - it is about twenty percent too long. Yet, it is one of Roth's better novels and shows him in fine form later in life.

for more information click here

A Rich Tapestry of Meaning

Upfront I just want to say that I feel my understanding of The Human Stain has just scratched the surface - but I guess that fits well with the purpose of the book, what can we really know about anyone or anything else? "Everyone knows" Delphine Roux writes, but the book turns on this phrase because no one knows - nobody knows the secretes we hide, or the thoughts we have.

Ironically though this book turns against it's own founding principle though in that it is itself a construct a piece of "everyone knows" as pieced together by Nathan Zuckerman as a sort of postmortem of his friend's life.

But despite that lack of a full understanding (or possibly because of it) I know that those reviews which I have read that talk of the books dead on criticism of academia today (or even of political correctness today) miss the point - if that is all they think the book is about then their view of the work is far too small and limited, for it is a book brimming with meaning and force not confined to so trite an area.

No doubt I will be coming back to this book on and off for some time - each time pulling back another vial of meaning, or maybe just reveling in the language of it.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Movie Novelizations and other Novels for the Reluctant Reader
Some books I like that you may like
Philosophers' Favorite Fiction
Books Read in 2008 Part 2
Books that Cast Light

search for books
human, novel, stain

Impressum / about us