Summary
Beginning with 2006's "Everyman," the 77-year-old novelist Philip Roth has become preoccupied with a brand of fiction he terms "short novels": Swift, straightforward novellas, easily read in one sitting, that seem designed to illustrate a deeply cynical worldview. At least one of these books, "Indignation" (2008), was brilliant -- a ruthless fable about a young Jewish man whose unwillingness to assimilate leads directly to a perilous spot on the front lines of the Korean War.
Yet, all of these short novels (there have now been four) feel simplistic and death-obsessed; it's as if Roth has given up on the world and wants to mock the rest of us for clinging to naive hope. "The Humbling" (2009) was about a once-revered actor whose life steadily unravels after he suffers a crisis of confidence on stage. His just-released latest, "Nemesis," is about a dedicated gym teacher who, when push comes to shove and a polio epidemic seizes Newark, turns out to be not quite so dedicated after all.See the full content of this document
Extract
Philip Roth Turns Out a Short, Sour 'Nemesis'
What a dreary pattern: Roth introduces decent-hearted people and then hangs them out to dry. You don't really believe the characters, who seem little more than sym...
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