Chez Shaffner

Monday, February 12, 2007

EVERYMAN by Philip Roth

Click book cover to access Amazon.

Philip Roth has been one of my favorite novelists since I read American Pastoral for a lit course my senior year of college--the book was awarded the Pulitzer a month after we finished it. Since then, I have followed Zuckerman and Portnoy and a young Philip himself facing an alternate mid-century American history. I have seldom come away anything less than awestruck. (The two-page dismissal of The Plot Against America at the conclusion of that book being one of the few weak moments, for my money).

Everyman is another gem, despite its being a slender digest-sized novel with almost no action at all. The book opens with our nameless protagonist’s funeral and starts over at his childhood, proceeding onward through three failed marriages, numerous health maladies, and to his death. Even though you know the death is coming, when I read the final page, Roth still manages to make it surprising. That’s quite the feat.

In many ways, the hero here is an unremarkable man; that fact is one component of what makes the book so wonderful. The story here could pertain to anyman.

Books where nothing happens intrigue me. That sounds odd to say, but I’m impressed by an author who manages to hold my attention without resorting to staccato chapters with cliffhanger endings. A few nights ago, I spoke reverently of Ian McEwan’s Saturday, which spans a single day in a man’s life, and despite some rather tense scenes, dwells on minutiae in a way that might make many readers turn away. An in-depth focus on the trivial becomes compelling only in the hands of a master craftsman (or craftswoman). Roth accomplishes the feat here.

3 Comments:

At 12:48 PM, Veritas99 said...: So, is Phillip Roth going to be posting comments about your review as well?

If so, let me know, because I'd love another chance to stick my foot in my mouth and insult the other published authors who visit your blog.
At 2:13 PM, Shaffner said...: I'm pretty sure that my little blog does not make Mr. Roth's radar. But that's the beauty of the blogosphere, my friend: everything written here is available from a simple search on Google (assuming they've indexed the page by then, and depending on my PageRank, of course, and all that jazz). It's kind of cool.
At 11:32 AM, BASKETbowl said...: retired at 49, write on...