Rating: 
Summary: Specifying the Ordinary
Review: Roth creates basic, stereotypical characters only to reveal the intricasies that even the most ordinary-seeming individuals hold within themselves. At first he generalizes (War, Sexual Abuse, Race) to show the universality of his theme, and then quickly enters the ins and outs of the supposedly mundane existence of janitors, professors and war vets. He shows the reader how life connects to its surroundings (past,present and future) and how it is up to the individual to take his or her own knowledge and reason and rebel against what is inevitable. Though it may seem that 'everyone knows', looked at closer, life is much more complex and in the complexity there are various escapes that we need to believe we can use.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: An extraordinary book, and one that is great fun to discuss with others....
Rating:
Summary: A Great Trilogy's Least
Review: The Human Stain, while vastly superior to most of what gets published in these times, is clearly the least component of a great trilogy.It is the story of the rise and fall of Coleman Silk, a brilliant, light skinned black from New Jersey who, after returning from service at the end of WWII, decides to ditch his racial identity along with his loving family and the rest of his past to re-create himself as a Jew. A regal and distant power-broker (as dean of faculty) in a small college, he is respected but apparently not much loved by his colleagues. His downfall is brought about by careless referring to some underperforming black students as "spooks", apparently a racist term from the 1950s (this expression is used in such a fashion by one of the characters of a 1985 film, "Back To the Future", in a scene that takes place in 1955). No soon has he uttered the words when a baying crowd starts asking for his head. A proud man, he refuses to defend himself, and prefers to quit his position. His wife dies of a broken heart over his mistreatment by the college and he takes up as a lover a supposedly lower-class cleaning woman who saw her two children burn to their death while enjoying furtive sex with one of a string of beaus. This only compounds his fall, because it irritates a flighty and thoroughly nasty French lecturer, Delphine Roux who, feeling spurned by the ideal "father figure" starts vicious gossip that eventually coalesces in an anonymous letter (obviously written by Roux) sent to Silk. The cleaning-woman, on the other hand, has a psychopathic ex-husband, a Vietnam war veteran who eventually (and don't read this if you don't want the story spoiled) kills both Silk and his ex-wife. Meanwhile, bitchy, too-smart-for-her-own-good Delphine mistakenly sends to all the faculty an email describing her ideal mate, who (surprise, surprise) turns out to be a portrait of the now disgraced Coleman Silk. Then, in order to disguise her idiocy, she fakes a break-in into her office by Silk. Convently, Silk cannot defend himself and his debasement is complete. Two inherently decent, if unlikeable people (Coleman and his lover) die in disgrace, while two underhanded killers of both character and body (Delphine and the Vietnam vet) survive. Such is life. Many readers will agree that the story is good, and very well told by Roth. His bleak worldview and trademark misoginy are well in evidence, his edenic descriptions of New Jersey in the 1930s and 1940s are still there too. He is very good at gripping descriptions of Promethean characters who initially triumph against long odds and are then dashed by the envious gods, who begrudge men the happiness that they have earned. But Coleman Silk's fall is not as entrancing of that of "Swede" Levov in "American Pastoral" or Iron Rinn in "I Married a Communist". Perhaps because Silk's flaws are imperceptible (at least to me) his collapse generated less sympathy than decent family man Levov's and Communist violent firebrand Rinn's. Also, there is nothing in "The Human Stain" like the nightmarish dinner party where Jessie Orcutt, an upper-class alcoholic whose husband will eventually steal "Swede" Levov's wife Dawn, tries to gouge Lou Levov's eye for no particular reason. Lou Levov, the "Swede"'s father, is the (Jewish) incarnation of human decency, and even he ends the book speechless, with blood on his face, while the malignant laughter of nihilist Marcia Umanoff rings, mocking him and all he stands for. Of course, it would be unfair to demand that a writer who already has included one of those moments that one never forgets in his trilogy's first book should also manage to get one into the last one. There is no dishonour in a book being the least of a great trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: A winner!
Review: Here's one to sink your teeth into this summer. Roth's latest works on so many levels--it's as if there are two or three novels rolled into one. The most powerful story line involves "passing"--a man "black" in his birth family remakes his life in the white world--Roth conveys the ripping away from family, the fear of being found out, the superhuman effort to maintain control--all so vividly. In a story within a story, Roth vividly portrays the world of boxing, describing the skill, the mental toughness, the sport in a way that I'd never read before (with all due respect to John Irving). Silk is a character who is too smart to fool himself--his own recognition of why he jettisons his real love and chooses his wife is as shocking to the reader as it is to Silk. The novel is intensely political too--in just the first couple of pages Roth launches a nuclear attack on all those who during the awful impeachment summer suddenly turned into saints and sought to get rid of a duly elected president for a most human failing. The novel also brings back Vietnam in all its horror--the passages inside the veterans' heads are among the scariest I've ever read--and shocking to realize that there are people walking around today suffering as these guys are from the events of over 30 years ago. And having explored all of this, but not yet finished, Roth turns to a minor character at the college, Silk's nemesis, and reveals her to be as vulnerable and confused and uncomfortable with herself as everyone else. Fundamentally, everyone in the novel is an outsider--no one belongs, is at peace, connected, not even Nathan. A great book club choice--you'll discuss this one for hours.
Rating:
Summary: A tale of willpower
Review: Apparently, this book is about human stupidity. The academic world's small-mindedness and gossip; the phony moralism of the anti-Clinton crusade; the whining foolishness of those who use their race as an excuse for their personal failures. But really, this book is about willpower - about the determination of a man to become something else than was allotted by destiny. The power than emanates from Coleman Silk is immense: he is at the same time an example of the richness of life and of the tradegies that result from denying and overcoming our roots - the "Human Stain" is that which society would attach to us, and that we must fight and suffer to get rid of.
Rating:
Summary: An ambitious exploration of humanity
Review: This is definitely one of Mr Roth's best books. Gone is the dry yet funny cynicism in his earlier works. What one finds in this book is a poignant exploration of humanity, of how macro events are interrelated with micro events. It is a marvellous work of art!
Rating:
Summary: His best in a while
Review: Still a bit of a cranky freak like all the other OWGs(*) are, Roth dishes it out well in this one. (* OWG = Old White Guys, e.g. Roth, Mailer, Updike, Cheever, Irving). Roth's modus operandi appears to be understanding the politics of revenge, sort of (you get the feeling that reviewer-author relationships were in his mind when he wrote it). In a twist not far off from Martin Amis' (or Kingsley, take your pick) academic foible novels, Roth tracks the disintigration of one man's life at a ripe old age. Less stupid than "A Man in Full" (but more stupid by far than something like "Independence Day"), Roth succeeds in picking away at human pettiness. Along the way, he manages some choice intersections of various corners of culture (white trash, academia, blacks, jews, etc.) with each other. This aspect could have been dealt with in a whole separate novel, with room to spare.
Rating:
Summary: The Best We Have
Review: Is it perfect? No. Is Les Farley sketchily drawn? Yes. Is this the best Philip Roth book? No, probably not. Is it even the best Zuckerman book? I'd get an argument, but maybe it is. Swede Lebov left me a little cold, and as good as the Ghost Writer is, Coleman Silk is a character for the ages. My own Roth ranking has this just below Sabbath's Theater. And who else comes close to this kind of sustained - and regular - output? Philip Roth is a national treasure, and this book is funny, sad, and wise. And unlike some of his other work, it has a heck of a plot...
Rating:
Summary: Political Correctness Takes a Hit
Review: A fresh slant to a contemporary issue. A fast and entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is the last ranting of a tired author
Review: I got this from the library, thank goodness. Book that aspires for greatness, but is so disconnected it fails and takes the reader with it. The stories are put together slapdash, like the writings of an adolescent or perhaps a schizophrenic. This seems more like a compilation of notes than a story. Further, the subject matter is tedious. Who is interested, other than another academic, about the fall from grace of an academic elite? The storyline, coupled with reckless descriptors was enough to extinguish even a Starbuck's Double Espresso induced interest level.
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