With Humanities Highlights, Himmelfarb staff aims to spotlight useful books from our Humanities collection. This week, we’re showcasing “Everyman,” by Philip Roth.
About the Book: Winner of the Pen/Faulkner award in 2007, Philip Roth’s slim novel portrays a man’s life in miniature that begins with the main character’s funeral. Eschewing conventional narrative structure, Roth weaves in and out of memories, forming a tapestry of regret and loss as the main character pursues a long-forestalled art career amidst health failure. Everyman is a novel that collapses personal history with medical history, investigating the way disease and aging shape us.
Reasons to Read: if you’re looking for scathing insights into complex emotions around aging and the disappointments of aging, brisk novels that offer an easy entry point into an acclaimed author’s oeuvre, or novels built around poetic (and surprisingly, often funny) moments rather than plot.
Reasons to Avoid: if you don’t like novels that lack chapter breaks, stories about serial philanderers who can’t stop philandering (even in the retirement home), or if you prefer developed characters rather than generalizations.
Further Reading:
- American Pastoral [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
- Goodbye, Columbus [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
- Portnoy’s Complaint [available through the Consortium Loan Service]
