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A review by kapgar
Nemesis by Philip Roth
5.0
With all the emphasis on WWII and the fronts on which Allied soldiers fought and died, many forget that a whole other war waged stateside simultaneously. A war that threatened the life of every child before they ever got to an age where they could die a victim of an Axis enemy. This war was polio and it claimed thousands of young lives every summer until a vaccine was finally discovered in the 50s.
In Weequahic, a heavily Jewish populated neighborhood in Newark, NJ, polio has hit but only in limited numbers. That is, until 1944, and a carload of self-proclaimed Italian infectees came to "spread" their disease amongst the Jews at a playground overseen by first-year teacher Bucky Cantor. From that point on, all Bucky can do is watch with terror as his children and others around him start falling victim to he polio scourge.
Although this book is a work of fiction, its setting and historical significance are sound and the writing is fantastic and powerful. This makes for a great read that is equal parts a condemnation of the disease and a god who would let it spread amongst the youngest of his flock as it is a devotional to the strength fostered by Bucky toward the kids he is trying to protect in the face of such terror.
In Weequahic, a heavily Jewish populated neighborhood in Newark, NJ, polio has hit but only in limited numbers. That is, until 1944, and a carload of self-proclaimed Italian infectees came to "spread" their disease amongst the Jews at a playground overseen by first-year teacher Bucky Cantor. From that point on, all Bucky can do is watch with terror as his children and others around him start falling victim to he polio scourge.
Although this book is a work of fiction, its setting and historical significance are sound and the writing is fantastic and powerful. This makes for a great read that is equal parts a condemnation of the disease and a god who would let it spread amongst the youngest of his flock as it is a devotional to the strength fostered by Bucky toward the kids he is trying to protect in the face of such terror.