American Pastoral – 5/5 Stars
This is the second book of the “American Trilogy” by Philip Roth. I’ve previously read The Human Stain, and this book also involved Nathan Zuckerman as guide and narrator (and in this case, author) like that book did, and while he spends a lot of time telling parts of his own story, it’s not exactly a Nathan Zuckerman novel in its own right. Zuckerman has been contacted by a high school hero of his, a local athlete and local boy made good, and most importantly the older brother of a classmate. “The Swede” as he was known in high school, and now both men are in their 60s, has asked Zuckerman to help him write or at least to look over an address he’s making. In the conversation, never actually get around to the speech, the two men talk about various things, catch up, and talk about the past and present. When Zuckerman goes to his 45 year high school reunion a little while later, and finds out from the classmate that “the Swede” has died from a fast-acting and aggressive cancer that he would have had to have known about when Zuckerman met up with him, he’s flummoxed. Using what he knows, and what he’s able to find out, the rest of our novel is given over to Zuckerman’s reconstruction of “the Swede’s” life. The story involves the Swede getting married to a WASP gentile woman, having one daughter, into which they put all their grief and doubt and love and interest in the world, having a successful business, and carving their version of American life in the 1950s and 1960s. When the daughter is determined to have a stuttering speech disorder, the same energy is put into working with her. We find out early that when she is 17, she bombs the local post office, killing one man, and runs off to live the life of a radical in exile. The novel explores this history in the future and past, as well as a number of questions about American conservatism, race, sexuality, and other important questions. It’s important to remember throughout though that we aren’t getting the Swede’s actual story, but Zuckerman’s impression of what his story might have been, had he been able to tell it.
(Photo: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11650.American_Pastoral)
The Prague Orgy – 4/5 Stars
A very short Zuckerman novel that takes place in Prague during a cultural exchange in the 1970s. Zuckerman, now in his 40s, and now the writer of several successful novels, is in Prague for a kind of conference and begins the novella in conversation with a renowned Czech writer, who probably has some Kundera in him, and probably has some Seifert in him as well. The conversation is about art, writing, politics (or lack of politics), and various other topics. As happens in a lot of Roth novels, Nathan is distracted by the Czech writer’s mistress who is full of life and energy, but also full of a consuming rage and passion. He’s both electrified and horrified and terrified by her. The orgy, as it happens, is this strange triangle that develops among the three of them, where Nathan is given full leave to sleep with the mistress, although he’s not sure if he wants to. This is a novella that speaks to the idea of what life is all about (I know I know, that’s what books are always about) but in the sense of when stakes are very high or when ideology is being discussed, what animal instincts and passions are also at play, and what are we willing to risk in the pursuit of any of these things. It’s also a very funny and also kind of terrifying book.
Zuckerman Unbound – 4/5 Stars
It becomes increasingly more difficult to place these Zuckerman books in the series in part because they were published in one order and take place in another. This book was first published in 1981, but takes place when Nathan is in his mid-30s after the publication and success of his novel “Karnovsky” which is clearly in part based on Portnoy’s Complaint. If you haven’t read Portnoy’s Complaint I don’t know if I could recommend it to you or not, but I do think it would make this book seem less meaningful and especially less funny.
This book is centered around a few instances and a repeated interaction between Nathan and a man who confronts him about his book. Also from Newark, this man has his own book he’s interested in writing about his experiences as a disgraced quiz show champion. Obviously based on Herbie Stempel, this character, a Jewish man from Newark, a little older than Nathan is a kind of foil for Nathan’s success. In addition to this instance, we also a series of repeated calls and threats regarding Nathan’s mother, a relationship between Nathan and an Irish actress, and various other little interactions. This novel is almost entirely a novel of interregnum, and is a kind of You Can’t Go Home Again in a lot of ways. It’s really funny and insightful, and in terms of a novel about novelists, I really enjoyed it.
Patrimony – 4/5 Stars
Reading this one amid all the Nathan Zuckerman novels does provide an interesting contrast and insight. Philip Roth is NOT Nathan Zuckerman, even in the ways that he IS Nathan Zuckerman. And seeing the relative humility and compassion of Roth as he writes about his father’s terminal battle with brain cancer shows a side of him that is not present in many of the novels (especially the ones with arrogant, officious, or awful narrators) and is closer to the novels where Roth is the narrator like The Plot Against America or Operation Shylock. Of course after several Zuckerman novels, the difference or subterfuge or lies that could be present in this memoir or those novels is always possible, but he seems earnest here, and regardless, the character in the memoir is earnest.
Roth’s father is a few year past his mother’s death, living in a retirement community, when he is diagnosed with cancer. As Roth, in his fifties, has to take care of him, make decisions for him, and times bully him into choices, we get a reflection on aging, fathers, mothers, and death.
The Anatomy Lesson – 4/5 Stars
I’ve never felt more seen by a book. Ok, that’s not really true. I don’t THINK I am much like Nathan Zuckerman. But what I mean is that this novel begins with Nathan Zuckerman experiencing an extreme intense neck and shoulder pain. We meet him in media res of this pain where he’s already tried numerous and exhaustive treatments including drugs, therapy, acupuncture, surgery, and various other treatments. Now, he’s got a system of pain management that still includes drugs, but also lying carefully on the floor on a baby’s play mate while a series of different women in his life spend their time taking care of him in various ways (food, sex, healthcare, etc). He is no longer writing, and it’s almost a relief to have the pain to credit with this as opposed to some other more worrisome issue. He’s kind of considered suicide, but is not the suicide type it seems.
So the novel is part about reckoning with this pain, while also reckoning with his seeming loss of writing. Obviously Philip Roth never really stopped writing until the very end of his life, so whatever experience he’s drawing from, it seems Nathan is experiencing this much worse. As he’s trying to figure what this all means for him, because of his pain, he begins to play around with the idea that he should go to medical school. It seems ultimately an excuse, but he does give it more than a cursory consideration when it’s all told.
It’s a funny and engaging novel that like the others in the series are more slices of life of the writer than a plot driven story.
