The Bottom Line

Issue date: 5/17/06 Section: Books

The only possible way to begin is to praise Philip Roth. There is nothing else to be done for an author who begins his narrative on a dreamy, dark day in a cemetery, yet brings as much life to the page as any master of words past or present, only to spiral down into the despairs of death and aging, stringing every piece of the protagonist's thoughts along fluidly and naturally and then silencing those thoughts with the reader's very own defeated exhalation as the life which sustained itself so well on the page is suddenly and abruptly ended.

Philip Roth's new writing, Everyman, stems from the only thing that can truly progress one's writing: maturity. Philip Roth is not dead, nor is he dying; he's not even sick, yet this latest work brings the inevitable to light with such truth as to fool the reader into believing it must be autobiographical. It's because Roth is now 73, and in a recent interview with Charles McGrath of the New York Times, Roth noted that the book came about after he attended several funerals of his friends. With his health still intact, he set out to write his own book about death.

The continuous narrative takes only 182 small pages and bears a nameless retired advertiser who has dealt with hospitals and death since childhood, only to grow older and look back on every mistake he has made and person he has hurt with disgust, loathing, and a deep sense of isolation as each year brings another hospital stay for himself, as well as one of his ex-wives having a serious stroke. He looks back on all of his encounters with death and his most memorable encounters with life, remembering his many affairs and loves but also the consequences those affairs brought upon him. He spends his last years in a retirement village on the Jersey shore, hoping to rekindle his love for painting and perhaps a woman, only to find himself longing for the woman who truly loved him, his last wife, and his daughter, Nancy, and realizing his inevitable and permanent displacement in their lives.

Only a writer with such experience and age as Roth could produce a stunning and intoxicating narrative like Everyman in such a short and simple space, but that must be a sign of true accomplishment, to succeed with such brevity, precision, and grace as Roth does. It's a testament to the true literary work being done today, and perhaps a sign that there is still much to come from Roth. It should be every reader's hope that Roth will continue to bring all that he has seen, heard, and learned to the page through his sharp intellect and equally sharp prose to help us all grasp some understanding of the wonderful, terrifying, and all too common human experience.

My advice on this read: Pick it up, open to the first page, read it with as much savoring as you would enjoy your favorite meal, and before you even know it, much like life, this book will be over.

4.5 out of 5

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