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greg_talbot 's review for:
The Human Stain
by Philip Roth
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.