Everyman
by Philip Roth
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Book Summary Information
Author: Philip RothEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-10
ISBN: 0307277712
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Everyman
Book Review: Momento Borey
Summary: 3 Stars
Forgive the puny title of this review - you see, I just have to do something whimsical to cheer myself up after reading this unrelentingly depressing book. Roth probably intends for his short work to be a brisk bucket of ice-water into the face of any cherished illusions about mortality one desperately clutch at, and the spare design of the book's cover permits no (visual) ebullience, either; a fair warning, indeed, of the very dismal (and, after a while, rather dull) subject-matter within.
So, what can Everyman offer, then, for the discearning reader? Well, the writing is pretty good, which is what one would expect from an author of Roth's pedigree. Moreover, one can take a certain, grim comfort in Roth's (and Everyman's) unsparingly brutal, unflinchingly honest look at illness, old-age and death. Roth seems to believe that, by doing so, a certain dignity is bequeathed to an otherwise ultimately puzzling, and increasingly ever more painful existence. In fact, in reading some of the positive reviews of this work, what stands out is how very appreciative many people are of Roth's stark honesty, giving voice, as it were, to those who have no recourse (anymore) but to face up to life's biggest challenge, the big (D)eath.
But let's face, too much of this sort of thing will, just as often, make a reader want to reach for the pills or gun even sooner than otherwise. After enduring Everyman, the only antidote to fight such bleakness is a complete immersion into the very thing that Everyman would, undoubtedly shun (and shudder over much more than his own demise), namely: psychic mediums, with their promises of a glorious afterlife for us all. For this reader, however, a rosey glow of angel wings is merely the opposite extreme of Roth's vampire-like ability to suck out any and all hope one may hold of existence beyond the grave. Accordingly, I am taking the middle path: I will hope for an afterlife of some sort, prepare, as best I can, for None (by-the-by, can Any of us Truly comprehend non-existence, including Roth? I think not), and, in the Mean time, divert myself via heaps of celebrity trivia, globs of junk food and mindless infotainment. Well, it's the American way, after all, until it all blinks out (hey, who are those people at the foot of my hospital bed? My god, it looks like the young Lucille Ball...and...Helen Reddy! Can that be right? Are They leading me onto this pretty rainbow bridge? Well, Gee. Who'da thunk it???...)
Summary of Everyman
Philip Roth's new novel is a candidly intimate yet universal story of loss, regret, and stoicism. The bestselling author of The Plot Against America now turns his attention from "one family's harrowing encounter with history" (New York Times) to one man's lifelong skirmish with mortality.The fate of Roth's everyman is traced from his first shocking confrontation with death on the idyllic beaches of his childhood summers, through the family trials and professional achievements of his vigorous adulthood, and into his old age, when he is rended by observing the deterioration of his contemporaries and stalked by his own physical woes.
The terrain of this powerful novel is the human body. Its subject is the common experience that terrifies us all.
Roth, Philip Books
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