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thingtwo's review
5.0
I forgot how much I really love Philip Roth. This is my favorite book of the series—why did I let someone convince me to skip it?
leasttorque's review against another edition
4.0
After a seriously sluggish start, this turned into my favorite Roth so far. The resonances with today’s politics, the presentation of multiple points of view, the personal tragedies, the intellectual coming of age and failure to fully arrive, the novel’s construction was a deft threading of the personal and the ideological.
I marked so many passages but this one bears some updating:
“McCarthy understood better than any American politician before him that people whose job was to legislate could do far better for themselves by performing; McCarthy understood the entertainment value of disgrace and how to feed the pleasures of paranoia. He took us back to our origins, back to the seventeenth century and the stocks. That’s how the country began: moral disgrace as public entertainment.”
We have passed from that world into one that harks even further back in time. A significant portion of the American people have moved on from the stocks to the coliseum. They cheer for the amoral emperor to feed the righteous to the lions.
I marked so many passages but this one bears some updating:
“McCarthy understood better than any American politician before him that people whose job was to legislate could do far better for themselves by performing; McCarthy understood the entertainment value of disgrace and how to feed the pleasures of paranoia. He took us back to our origins, back to the seventeenth century and the stocks. That’s how the country began: moral disgrace as public entertainment.”
We have passed from that world into one that harks even further back in time. A significant portion of the American people have moved on from the stocks to the coliseum. They cheer for the amoral emperor to feed the righteous to the lions.
ahalpine's review
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jfeen's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
zapthistle's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
The first Roth book I ever read, and I read almost everything by him after that, which I think says it all.
klinejosh94's review
5.0
“Occasionally now, looking back, I think of my life as one long speech that I've been listening to. The rhetoric is sometimes original, sometimes pleasurable, sometimes pasteboard crap (the speech of the incognito), sometimes maniacal, sometimes matter-of-fact, and sometimes like the sharp prick of a needle, and I have been hearing it for as long as I can remember: how to think, how not to think; how to behave, how not to behave; whom to loathe and whom to admire; what to embrace and when to escape; what is rapturous, what is murderous, what is laudable, what is shallow, what is sinister, what is shit, and how to remain pure in soul.”
Philip Roth’s tragic tale of marital betrayal amidst the Red Scare of postwar America is a work that seems to attempt to surpass David Cronenberg’s ‘The Brood’ in ex-wife spite.
Roth was writing from a place of unhealthy cognitive dissonance or disturbing self-awareness (or both).
thomastittley's review
1.0
I’ll be honest, not a big fan of using a third party (Nathan) to tell someone else’s story, but then relying on Ira’s brother made it borderline unreadable . The book is three people removed from the actual events. I get Roth is this iconic writer, but my brother in Christ, tell a succinct story.
Edited note: Ah…. After doing some research, It seems like Philip was using using Eve as a fill-in for his ex wife. Ummmm you’re weird, dude.
Edited note: Ah…. After doing some research, It seems like Philip was using using Eve as a fill-in for his ex wife. Ummmm you’re weird, dude.
lelila's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Sehr interessantes Buch über die Ideologie sie sichaus dem Wunsch zur Selbstverwirklichung Spalte und all diese Einflüsse die einen konstant in Andes Richtung zehren. Die dafür sorgen dass man selbst mit sich im Zweifel ist was richtig ist was seine Überzeugung ist wie weit würde man gehen. Wie weit geht man dann auch für Rache. Wie viel ausnutzen ist natürlich in einer Beziehung, wann ist es zu viel das man es aus Bosheit macht. Wie rechtfertigen man den schmez mit denn man Anden zufügt.
Ich fand das Buch auch sehr gut geschrieben. Sehr dieser amerikanische einsaugendes Stil. Erzähler Perspektive fand ich auch sehr interessant, dass der Bruder und der jüngere Schriftsteller ist, wodurch man sich halt auch fragt. Okay, wir erfahren jetzt nur die ganze Zeit aus einer Perspektive, was die ian gut darstellen wollen. Was ist die andere Geschichte? Was ist die andere Seite?
Ich fand das Buch auch sehr gut geschrieben. Sehr dieser amerikanische einsaugendes Stil. Erzähler Perspektive fand ich auch sehr interessant, dass der Bruder und der jüngere Schriftsteller ist, wodurch man sich halt auch fragt. Okay, wir erfahren jetzt nur die ganze Zeit aus einer Perspektive, was die ian gut darstellen wollen. Was ist die andere Geschichte? Was ist die andere Seite?
joie_sauvage's review against another edition
4.0
4,5/5 un excellent livre qui se déroule dans une Amérique des années 50 anti-communiste et qui constitue de ce fait une très bonne introduction au sujet. Excellent également pour démontrer comment ce genre de "courants" peut embarquer avec lui pour des mauvaises raisons des tas de jeunes, un bon livre sur la manipulation à différents niveaux et sur différents sujets, c'est un roman politique, psychologique mais aussi un très bon livre sur la famille. Il est excellent et très intelligent, Philip Roth a une langue tranchante, il n'y va pas par quatre chemins pour dire ce qu'il pense et je suis encore plus impatiente de découvrir ses autres livres.