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Philip Roth's twenty-seventh book takes its title from an anonymous fifteenth-century English allegorical play whose drama centres on the summoning of the living to death and whose hero, "Everyman", is intended to be the personification of mankind. The fate of Roth's "Everyman" is traced from his first shocking confrontation with death on the idyllic beaches of his childhood summers and during his hospitalisation as a nine-year-old surgical patient through the crises of health that come close to killing him as a vigorous adult, and into his old age, when he is undone by the death and deterioration of his contemporaries and relentlessly stalked by his own menacing physical woes. A successful commercial advertising artist with a New York ad agency, he is the father of two sons who despise him and a daughter who adores him, the beloved brother of a good man whose physical well-being comes to arouse his bitter envy, and the lonely ex-husband of three very different women with whom he's made a mess of marriage. "Everyman" is a painful human story of the regret and loss and stoicism of a man who becomes what he does not want to be. The terrain of this savagely sad short novel is the human body, and its subject is the common experience that terrifies us all.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. [Signature]Reviewed by Sara NelsonWhat is it about Philip Roth? He has published 27 books, almost all of which deal with the same topicsJewishness, Americanness, sex, aging, familyand yet each is simultaneously familiar and new. His latest novel is a slim but dense volume about a sickly boy who grows up obsessed with his and everybody else's health, and eventually dies in his 70s, just as he always said he would. (I'm not giving anything away here; the story begins with the hero's funeral.) It might remind you of the old joke about the hypochondriac who ordered his tombstone to read: "I told you I was sick."And yet, despite its coy title, the book is both universal and very, very specific, and Roth watchers will not be able to stop themselves from comparing the hero to Roth himself. (In most of his books, whether written in the third person or the first, a main character is a tortured Jewish guy from Newarklike Roth.) The unnamed hero here is a thrice-married adman, a father and a philanderer, a 70-something who spends his last days lamenting his lost prowess (physical and sexual), envying his healthy and beloved older brother, and refusing to apologize for his many years of bad behavior, although he palpably regrets them. Surely some wiseacre critic will note that he is Portnoy all grown up, an amalgamation of all the womanizing, sex- and death-obsessed characters Roth has written about (and been?) throughout his career.But to obsess about the parallels between author and character is to miss the point: like all of Roth's works, even the lesser ones, this is an artful yet surprisingly readable treatise on... well, on being human and struggling and aging at the beginning of the new century. It also borrows devices from his previous worksthere's a sequence about a gravedigger that's reminiscent of the glove-making passages in American Pastoral, and many observations will remind careful readers of both Patrimony and The Dying Animaland through it all, there's that Rothian voice: pained, angry, arrogant and deeply, wryly funny. Nothing escapes him, not even his own self-seriousness. "Amateurs look for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work," he has his adman-turned-art-teacher opine about an annoying student. Obviously, Roth himself is a professional. (May 5)Sara Nelson is editor-in-chief of PW.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。
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カスタマーレビュー
最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー
3 人中、2人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
形式:ペーパーバック
荒廃したユダヤ人墓地での参列者もまばらな＜彼＞の葬儀から始まり、＜彼＞の全人生の断片（病と晩年と３度の結婚・離婚と家族）が語られていく。葬儀では娘によって彼の処世訓<There's no remaking reality.Just take it as it comes.>が披露されるのだが。それに相応しい＜彼＞の厳かな晩年が描かれるのか・・・・・ん、何か違うぞ。失敗した３度の結婚に対する無責任な弁明と、幼い頃より敬愛してた健康な兄に対する理不尽な嫉妬、その他あらゆる『負の感情』が軽快なリズムで縦横無尽に綴られる。
＜彼＞は広告会社でcreative directorとして成功し晩年は海辺のretirement villageに転居。念願だった絵を心行くまま描きながら時に住民のために絵画教室を開きながら一人で悠々自適に暮らしてるはずなのだが。最終的には<Old age isn't a battle;old age is a massacre.>という境地に至ってしまう。どうして？
幼い頃の＜彼＞は父の貴金属店<通称Everyman's Jewelry Store>でせっせとお手伝いをし店員さんや家族の誰からも愛される。壊れた時計をガチャゴチャいじってる可愛い少年の姿が目に浮かぶ。そんな少年が＜彼＞になるなんて！
50歳の時に思いっきり「はまった」デンマーク人モデルの＜little hole＞と引き換えに別れたのが正に良妻賢母の２番目の妻と、彼女との子供である心優しい最愛の娘。
悲しすぎると愚かすぎると可笑しくなるし泣きたくもなる、そんな「おとぼけ」の効いた重い想いの染み渡る粋な小品。
＜彼＞は広告会社でcreative directorとして成功し晩年は海辺のretirement villageに転居。念願だった絵を心行くまま描きながら時に住民のために絵画教室を開きながら一人で悠々自適に暮らしてるはずなのだが。最終的には<Old age isn't a battle;old age is a massacre.>という境地に至ってしまう。どうして？
幼い頃の＜彼＞は父の貴金属店<通称Everyman's Jewelry Store>でせっせとお手伝いをし店員さんや家族の誰からも愛される。壊れた時計をガチャゴチャいじってる可愛い少年の姿が目に浮かぶ。そんな少年が＜彼＞になるなんて！
50歳の時に思いっきり「はまった」デンマーク人モデルの＜little hole＞と引き換えに別れたのが正に良妻賢母の２番目の妻と、彼女との子供である心優しい最愛の娘。
悲しすぎると愚かすぎると可笑しくなるし泣きたくもなる、そんな「おとぼけ」の効いた重い想いの染み渡る粋な小品。
Amazon.com で最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー (beta)
Amazon.com:
159件のカスタマーレビュー
154 人中、142人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Existential angst and Everyman.
2006/4/28
形式:ハードカバー
This book turned out to be more than a good read for me; it was an experience.
I need to start this review by saying I really like Philip Roth. Books like American Pastoral and The Human Stain and many of his older books were terrific reads for me.
This is a very short book. Normally Philip Roth can go on and on, (you know how often you can turn the page in a Roth book and see that the next two pages are all one paragraph....) but he rarely does that here. This book is very spare. Some reviews say too much so, but I disagree.
Summary, no spoilers:
The story first starts off with the protagonists funeral, and then goes back in time with him narrating the story of his life.
We hear about his fear of death, and his intense frustration with his increasing health problems. In essence, the human condition. And the narrator is a man with no religious convictions to soften the blow.
I have read some criticism that the character is not fully developed, but I disagree. Our narrator, (unnamed), tells us bits and pieces of his life, from different times in his life. It is a thumbnail sketch of an existence. There is just enough detail so that it feels real, and we can identify with his childhood exuberance, and his middle-age wanderlust.
Roth manages to touch on so many universal truths, and for me, there were many times I found myself nodding my head in understanding.
Yes, the book is short, very short, but perhaps because of this, and because of Roth's skill as a writer, when I turned the last page I felt like I had read something much longer. It did not need one more word.
Highly recommended. It's the work of a great artist again sharing his observations about life in a way that makes us empathize.
I need to start this review by saying I really like Philip Roth. Books like American Pastoral and The Human Stain and many of his older books were terrific reads for me.
This is a very short book. Normally Philip Roth can go on and on, (you know how often you can turn the page in a Roth book and see that the next two pages are all one paragraph....) but he rarely does that here. This book is very spare. Some reviews say too much so, but I disagree.
Summary, no spoilers:
The story first starts off with the protagonists funeral, and then goes back in time with him narrating the story of his life.
We hear about his fear of death, and his intense frustration with his increasing health problems. In essence, the human condition. And the narrator is a man with no religious convictions to soften the blow.
I have read some criticism that the character is not fully developed, but I disagree. Our narrator, (unnamed), tells us bits and pieces of his life, from different times in his life. It is a thumbnail sketch of an existence. There is just enough detail so that it feels real, and we can identify with his childhood exuberance, and his middle-age wanderlust.
Roth manages to touch on so many universal truths, and for me, there were many times I found myself nodding my head in understanding.
Yes, the book is short, very short, but perhaps because of this, and because of Roth's skill as a writer, when I turned the last page I felt like I had read something much longer. It did not need one more word.
Highly recommended. It's the work of a great artist again sharing his observations about life in a way that makes us empathize.
28 人中、28人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Caveat emptor.
2007/4/13
形式:ペーパーバック
First the caveats. This is not a play; it is a novel. This is not an allegory; it is a realistic narrative. This is not about everyman; it is about a specific individual. Everyman is not a secularized Jewish New Yorker with a brother worth $50,000,000, three wives, and the opportunity to have hot sex with a Danish model. The life of the unnamed protagonist does, however, link with common aspects of human experience in striking and sometimes profound ways.
There are three major themes. The first is the exploration of the Scottish proverb that (put more decorously) an aroused male member has no conscience. When it follows its impulses the results are often ultimately unpleasant. The second, more important theme, is the illustration of Yeats's notion that as we age we increasingly feel as if our hearts--sick with desire--are "fastened to a dying animal." The book is a meditation on death, but more particularly a meditation upon the ways in which our bodies (some of our bodies; the protagonist's brother is healthy as well as rich) fail and betray us. The third is the importance of family and friends, but particularly family--a nexus of relationships that we see as important when we stop being selfish and begin to be wise.
The story is beautifully written, beautifully plotted, beautifully realized. It is grim but neither hollow nor depressing, erotic but not lurid. Most of all it is rich in details and descriptions. Highly recommended.
There are three major themes. The first is the exploration of the Scottish proverb that (put more decorously) an aroused male member has no conscience. When it follows its impulses the results are often ultimately unpleasant. The second, more important theme, is the illustration of Yeats's notion that as we age we increasingly feel as if our hearts--sick with desire--are "fastened to a dying animal." The book is a meditation on death, but more particularly a meditation upon the ways in which our bodies (some of our bodies; the protagonist's brother is healthy as well as rich) fail and betray us. The third is the importance of family and friends, but particularly family--a nexus of relationships that we see as important when we stop being selfish and begin to be wise.
The story is beautifully written, beautifully plotted, beautifully realized. It is grim but neither hollow nor depressing, erotic but not lurid. Most of all it is rich in details and descriptions. Highly recommended.
40 人中、37人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Unsatisfying
2006/4/30
形式:ハードカバー
If you're like me, and you consider Philip Roth to be one of the historic literary greats, it doesn't matter what I or anybody else has to say about Everyman: you're going to read this book. But I think you'll find Everyman to be less than satisfying. There's very little "astonishing" in this book, as there is in every page, if not in every paragraph, of Roth's best novels. On the subject of old age and imminent oblivion, Roth himself did a better and more artistic job in Sabbath's Theater and the novels narrated by Zuckerman (remember the old man in I Married a Communist?). Death is horrifying, but awesomely horrifying. Everyman is devoid of awe.
It's not apparent to me what Roth wants the reader to think of the main character. The title and numerous passages in the book indicate the guy exemplifies average, normal mankind, but he doesn't. As you would expect from a Roth protagonist, the Everyman character is abnormally incompetent at family life, and abnormally obsessed with silly sex. I'm not giving anything away here, but the guy craters a good marriage in favor of anal sex with an airhead. What are we supposed to make of that particular in a book that takes on existential themes? The good wife's furious denunciation of her husband are the best pages in the book: fluent, copious, intelligent rage, like something out of Greek tragedy.
As I said, you know Roth is a national treasure, you're going to read this book, and you should. But you won't re-read it, as you do your favorite Roth novels.
It's not apparent to me what Roth wants the reader to think of the main character. The title and numerous passages in the book indicate the guy exemplifies average, normal mankind, but he doesn't. As you would expect from a Roth protagonist, the Everyman character is abnormally incompetent at family life, and abnormally obsessed with silly sex. I'm not giving anything away here, but the guy craters a good marriage in favor of anal sex with an airhead. What are we supposed to make of that particular in a book that takes on existential themes? The good wife's furious denunciation of her husband are the best pages in the book: fluent, copious, intelligent rage, like something out of Greek tragedy.
As I said, you know Roth is a national treasure, you're going to read this book, and you should. But you won't re-read it, as you do your favorite Roth novels.
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