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A review by leasttorque
Nemesis by Philip Roth
5.0
Reading this in the time of COVID gave this historical novel based around a major polio outbreak during WWII an added resonance.
“It’s important that neighborhood life goes on as usual—otherwise, it’s not only the stricken in their families who are victims, but Weequahic itself becomes a victim.”
“The alternative isn’t to lock [the children] up in their houses and fill them with dread.”
“This is America. The less fear the better. Fear unmans us. Fear degrade us. Fostering less fear—that’s your job and mine.”
And this from a physician, even as hospitals are already running out of iron lungs.
There were sirens in the distance...
Sound familiar? And thus the magnitude of the tragedy increases.
But this is not just a book about an epidemic. Or a trip through the author’s childhood. Or a reflection on being Jewish in America and the role of God and religion, the Greek ideal for body and mind and the impossibility of maintaining it. It is the heartbreaking story of Bucky Cantor, man of duty. More cannot be said without spoiling, but I will add that Catholic guilt serves as a perfectly adequate stand-in for Bucky’s own life history.
“It’s important that neighborhood life goes on as usual—otherwise, it’s not only the stricken in their families who are victims, but Weequahic itself becomes a victim.”
“The alternative isn’t to lock [the children] up in their houses and fill them with dread.”
“This is America. The less fear the better. Fear unmans us. Fear degrade us. Fostering less fear—that’s your job and mine.”
And this from a physician, even as hospitals are already running out of iron lungs.
There were sirens in the distance...
Sound familiar? And thus the magnitude of the tragedy increases.
But this is not just a book about an epidemic. Or a trip through the author’s childhood. Or a reflection on being Jewish in America and the role of God and religion, the Greek ideal for body and mind and the impossibility of maintaining it. It is the heartbreaking story of Bucky Cantor, man of duty. More cannot be said without spoiling, but I will add that Catholic guilt serves as a perfectly adequate stand-in for Bucky’s own life history.