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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
I read this 10 years ago for a book club. I remember thinking it was well-written, but it doesn't leave a pleasant memory. Perhaps I grew tired of the characters or felt it was too preachy? I cannot recall... I just remember being ultimately disappointed.
too long and couldn't get into it, also took my exam on it so i figured it wasn't necessary to finish it
I heard so many people say that Philip Roth is a great author and I was always like "yeah whatever". But dude, he really is good. This book! Congrats Philip
The Human Stain… or Roth, an old white guy, complaining about 'political correctness'.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's the first Phillip Roth book I've read. Well-written and interesting, but to my eyes, needlessly prurient at points (although I gather this is a constant in Roth's writing). There were threads of the story that sure did not go where I thought they would, and I felt a bit cheated by the ending, but I'm still glad I read it.
A great read yet not a particularly moving one. I didn't particularly connect to the plot or the themes, but Roth's characters come alive on his pages and I was compelled to finish even if the story itself did not generally intrigue me.
Overall, I enjoyed this book because it took me on a hell of a ride through Coleman Silk's complicated life, and along the way delved into some difficult themes which really made me think. It engages in conversations about individualism, American values, race, 'cancel culture' (before that term came about), and a whole host of other themes. Although presented in the light of the late 90s, I felt many of these topics continue to be relevant, albeit in different forms. Many have written that it captures well the America of that time (the zeitgeist of the nation, as they say). This I cannot truly speak to, as I was but a baby in those times, but I can see how Roth's writing is definitely aimed more at capturing moods than it is at moving along any type of plot.
Having glanced over a few other reviews, I can also say I agree with some people's dismay at the style. Roth does sometimes become needlessly wordy, trying to paint a scene with elaborate or mysterious wording that ends up making little sense. A case in point is near the end: "A quick look that was ninety percent opaque and ten percent alarmingly transparent".
That said, the way he writes did produce a lot of enjoyable/meaningful quotes in my opinion:
"A tiny symbol, if one were needed, of all the million circumstances of the other fellow's life, of that blizzard of details that constitute the confusion of a human biography--a tiny symbol to remind me why our understanding of people must always be at best slightly wrong".
"But to be no longer circumscribed or defined by his father was like finding that all the clocks wherever he looked had stopped, and all the watches, and that there was no way of knowing what time it was."
"You can't let the big they impose its bigotry on you any more than you can let the little they become a we and impose its ethics on you."
"I suppose that I could be that ruthless with you. Yes, that's possible, I suppose. But where do you think I'm going to find the strength to be that ruthless with myself?" (Coleman's mother speaking)
"I suppose any profound change in life involves saying 'I don't know you' to someone."
"Still, you have to admit that this girl has revealed more about America than anybody since Dos Passos." (referencing Monica Lewinsky)
"Nor was he a radical or a revolutionary, not even intellectually or philosophically speaking, unless it is revolutionary to believe that disregarding prescriptive society's most restrictive demarcations and asserting independently a free personal choice that is well within the law was something other than a basic human right--unless it is revolutionary, when you've come of age, to refuse to accept automatically the contract drawn up for your signature at birth."
"All the social ways of thinking, shut 'em down. Everything the wonderful society is asking? The way we're set up socially? 'I should, I should, I should'? Fuck all that. What you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to do, all that, it just kills everything." (Faunia Farley speaking)
"Why should it be so impossible just to know what to do?"
"But the danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop." (Ernestine speaking)
"There are no more criteria, Mr. Zuckerman, only opinions." (Ernestine again)
"How did such a man as Coleman come to exist? What is it that he was? Was the idea he had for himself of lesser validity or of greater validity than someone else's idea of what he was supposed to be?"
"Was he merely being another America and, in the great frontier tradition, accepting the democratic invitation to throw your origins overboard if to do so contributes to the pursuit of happiness?"
Having glanced over a few other reviews, I can also say I agree with some people's dismay at the style. Roth does sometimes become needlessly wordy, trying to paint a scene with elaborate or mysterious wording that ends up making little sense. A case in point is near the end: "A quick look that was ninety percent opaque and ten percent alarmingly transparent".
That said, the way he writes did produce a lot of enjoyable/meaningful quotes in my opinion:
"A tiny symbol, if one were needed, of all the million circumstances of the other fellow's life, of that blizzard of details that constitute the confusion of a human biography--a tiny symbol to remind me why our understanding of people must always be at best slightly wrong".
"But to be no longer circumscribed or defined by his father was like finding that all the clocks wherever he looked had stopped, and all the watches, and that there was no way of knowing what time it was."
"You can't let the big they impose its bigotry on you any more than you can let the little they become a we and impose its ethics on you."
"I suppose that I could be that ruthless with you. Yes, that's possible, I suppose. But where do you think I'm going to find the strength to be that ruthless with myself?" (Coleman's mother speaking)
"I suppose any profound change in life involves saying 'I don't know you' to someone."
"Still, you have to admit that this girl has revealed more about America than anybody since Dos Passos." (referencing Monica Lewinsky)
"Nor was he a radical or a revolutionary, not even intellectually or philosophically speaking, unless it is revolutionary to believe that disregarding prescriptive society's most restrictive demarcations and asserting independently a free personal choice that is well within the law was something other than a basic human right--unless it is revolutionary, when you've come of age, to refuse to accept automatically the contract drawn up for your signature at birth."
"All the social ways of thinking, shut 'em down. Everything the wonderful society is asking? The way we're set up socially? 'I should, I should, I should'? Fuck all that. What you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to do, all that, it just kills everything." (Faunia Farley speaking)
"Why should it be so impossible just to know what to do?"
"But the danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can't stop." (Ernestine speaking)
"There are no more criteria, Mr. Zuckerman, only opinions." (Ernestine again)
"How did such a man as Coleman come to exist? What is it that he was? Was the idea he had for himself of lesser validity or of greater validity than someone else's idea of what he was supposed to be?"
"Was he merely being another America and, in the great frontier tradition, accepting the democratic invitation to throw your origins overboard if to do so contributes to the pursuit of happiness?"
Thwarted ambition in portraits of millenial angst and despondency are littered across Phillip Roth's writing. Whether it is the mourning of a country that lost it's moral courage in the Vietnam War, or a professor that lost his stature in the community, the "Human Stain" delivers a poingant and comically black portrait of two fated lovers.
This being my second Philip Roth read, the first being "American Pastoral" (1997), I have so much respect for Roth's writing style. It's refreshingly contemporary, but he has a way of using words and ideas, and linking them across differnet paragraphs, and trains of thought to make something much more poetic. Often he lightly touches on allusions, onto seemingly unsuual moments, only to bring them all back together.
The book rewards close attention, and all the tiny scenes, do add up to deep themes about justice, identity, family relations and our changing cultural. Although it takes place in the Clinton years, the political themes here are just as relevant today. Roth's "Human Stain" is unforgettable, brutal and proof that Hemingway's mastery of the brief but impact sentence, remains alive.
This being my second Philip Roth read, the first being "American Pastoral" (1997), I have so much respect for Roth's writing style. It's refreshingly contemporary, but he has a way of using words and ideas, and linking them across differnet paragraphs, and trains of thought to make something much more poetic. Often he lightly touches on allusions, onto seemingly unsuual moments, only to bring them all back together.
The book rewards close attention, and all the tiny scenes, do add up to deep themes about justice, identity, family relations and our changing cultural. Although it takes place in the Clinton years, the political themes here are just as relevant today. Roth's "Human Stain" is unforgettable, brutal and proof that Hemingway's mastery of the brief but impact sentence, remains alive.