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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
I haven't read much Roth, but I think this is probably my favorite. Which is interesting to me because it's nonfiction. Which is doubly interesting to me because Roth's Zuckerman novels at least have the appearance and affect of autofiction. And so while all the novels of his I've read seem to be about him, it's this memoir that actually did what I hoped those other novels would achieve. And, again, this is triply interesting to me because the narrative style and voice is identical to the Zuckerman novels I've read.
I think what Roth does--which I wasn't appreciating previously because of some of the gimmicks--better than most is immediately make you understand a character. He manages to draw very complex humans with a deft shorthand. I knew his father from the first page of this book, and though every page reveals more of his father to me, I feel like he's become an old friend to me, rather than a new friend. The same could be said of Roth himself in this book.
Too, this novel is just hilarious. Now, a book about your father dying of a brain tumor doesn't sound like an obvious place for moments that'll make you laugh, but Roth just has a clever way of telling jokes. I think this works better for me here than it did in his Zuckerman novels because there's a real humility here and much less bitterness and spite.
It's hard to laugh with an asshole. Easier to laugh with an affable idiot who knows himself to be a genius.
But, yes, this is great. It's hilarious at times--I dare someone else to make dinner with a Holocaust survivor this funny--and then quite moving. Last year when I read several of Roth's books in a row, I felt worn out by Zuckerman. This has energized me a bit. So I may dive into a few more.
I think what Roth does--which I wasn't appreciating previously because of some of the gimmicks--better than most is immediately make you understand a character. He manages to draw very complex humans with a deft shorthand. I knew his father from the first page of this book, and though every page reveals more of his father to me, I feel like he's become an old friend to me, rather than a new friend. The same could be said of Roth himself in this book.
Too, this novel is just hilarious. Now, a book about your father dying of a brain tumor doesn't sound like an obvious place for moments that'll make you laugh, but Roth just has a clever way of telling jokes. I think this works better for me here than it did in his Zuckerman novels because there's a real humility here and much less bitterness and spite.
It's hard to laugh with an asshole. Easier to laugh with an affable idiot who knows himself to be a genius.
But, yes, this is great. It's hilarious at times--I dare someone else to make dinner with a Holocaust survivor this funny--and then quite moving. Last year when I read several of Roth's books in a row, I felt worn out by Zuckerman. This has energized me a bit. So I may dive into a few more.
https://youtu.be/IaXtncdHbr4?si=pgYa4mMdMCfREUbe
This is an excellent elegy to Roth’s father and a tribute to a generation of immigrants who carved out a sense of community and family. This is Roth’s true humbling, and it may be the most honest of all his works. For Roth fans, it’s a skeleton key that illuminates works from Goodbye, Columbus to The Plot Against America, even working in a context for Our Gang, and, of course, the many Zuckerman books. For everyone else, it is an emotional accounting of an experience many of us face.
This is an excellent elegy to Roth’s father and a tribute to a generation of immigrants who carved out a sense of community and family. This is Roth’s true humbling, and it may be the most honest of all his works. For Roth fans, it’s a skeleton key that illuminates works from Goodbye, Columbus to The Plot Against America, even working in a context for Our Gang, and, of course, the many Zuckerman books. For everyone else, it is an emotional accounting of an experience many of us face.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Work of nonfiction from an excellent fiction writer. Many of the themes within the book are close to me personally. My biggest take away is how differently people experience death and grief.
So very compelling. The language is efficient, muscular, potent, at times stopped me in my tracks, most of it recounting the events and conversations that took place over those last few years of his dad’s life with careful attention and sprinkled with moments of deep luminous reflection, the mix of which I now understand composes Roth’s writing genius. I wasn't necessarily drawn to the dad’s obstinate rambling character but I was pushed forward by the core of this book, the narrator trying to hold it together through such a difficult process, and honoring his dad throughout, and that was very powerful. Of course I read this through the prism of my dad’s death and there were many parallel stories, even if my dad died much younger than Philip’s. The way his father resembled his own mother; the obsessive details of their final conversations. And of course, the fear of forgetting the man who died.
Reread. Real ones know this is one of Roth’s best. The Walter Herrmann story is so ridiculous and funny that it couldn’t be anything other than true.