Just finished the novel mentioned above by Philip Roth. He's one of those authors whose name gets frequently bandied about as sort of a must read of late 20th century authors. He's still writing. though this book is from 1967.
It's basically the story of George Costanza, if George was good at anything.
Jewish kid grows up in Newark NJ the son of crazy parents. Mother overprotective. Father absent and terminally constipated. All of them always yelling. He's an overachiever, and a serial masturbator starting at age 9 and continues a streak of sexual deviance into his 30's where the novel ends. His relationships are a mess and he feels that his upbringing is to blame, though it seems obvious to the reader that he's really the principal source of his troubles.
It's all written from the perspective of an older him talking to his psychiatrist so there are long stretches of a sort of stream of consciousness with little dialogue. An interesting device for constructing a novel and one that stretches a relatively short book into a significantly longer read.
Graphic content and filled with profanity, but funny through and through. Highly recommended for a change of pace.
Next up: Shalimar the Clown, my continuing exploration of the writings of Salman Rushdie.
3 comments:
I think I need to get a change of pace, particularly with a book that was written in the same language in which I'm reading.
SH spoke here on campus a while back. I remember not too long ago it was quite an event to see him (or, more realistically, hear about him) moving around in public.
You'll whiz through it and probably have a good time doing it. It is distinctly lacking in metaphor or symbollism.
Sounds good. It's on the list.
I definitely need to get around to Rushdie.
Post a Comment