The Humbling - Hardcover

Roth, Philip

3.26

6,530 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224087932 ISBN 13: 9780224087933

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2009

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Everything is over for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth's startling new book. One of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent and his assurance. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great roles, 'are melted into air, into thin air'. When he goes on stage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to be someone else. 'Something fundamental has vanished.' His wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can't persuade him to make a comeback.

Into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for the bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not towards comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day's journey into night, told with Roth's inimitable urgency, bravura and gravity, all the ways that we persuade ourselves of our solidity, all our life's performances - talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation - are stripped off.

Following the dark meditations on mortality and endings in Everyman and Exit Ghost, and the bitterly ironic retrospect on youth and chance in Indignation, Roth has written another in his haunting group of late novels.

The Humbling is Roth's thirtieth book.

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Review:

Siobhan Murphy, `Roth's late prodigious burst of creativity continues'. --Metro

Jason Cowley: `Roth ...knows no limits, which is part of the fun of reading him.' --New Statesmen

`We're Reading, `adds to his reputation as one of American literature's greats' --Times

'...these little masterpieces are coming out once a year, if not faster' --Literary Review

`His most savage and unrelenting work yet ... (Roth) has lost neither his voice nor his power to shock' --Sunday Herald

"witty and provocative" --Daily Mail

`Roth scores a palpable hit'
--Economist

`the great man of American literature still flashes with brilliance.' --Sunday Express

`told with the customary subtle, spare and beautiful prose that is Roth's mark' --The Tablet

`wonderful touches'
--Sunday Times

Book Description:

Another brilliant short novel by Philip Roth

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