Philip Roth, página 3 de 15

Nathan Zuckerman torna a Nova York, la ciutat que havia deixat onze anys abans. En aquest temps, Zuckerman no s'ha dedicat a altra cosa que a ser escriptor: sense veus que el destorbessin, sense mitjans de comunicacio, sense amenaces terroristes, sense dones, sense noticies, sense res mes a fer que la seva feina i suportar l'envelliment. Zuckerman camina pels carrers de la ciutat com un fantasma i aviat estableix contacte amb tres persones que trenquen la seva solitud tan ben protegida. Implicat de sobte amb sentiments com l'amor, el dolor, el desig i l'odi, Zuckerman viu un drama interior d'alta intensitat dramatica. Emparentada amb algunes de les primeres novel"les de Philip Roth -la comedia melancolica The Ghost Writer, el contrapunt entre realitat i imaginacio de The Counterlife, els dialegs caracteristics de Deception- L'espectre se'n va torna a l'estil i els temes incomparables de Roth, aixi com un pas impressionant cap a una nova fase en el seu compromis insaciable amb la ficcio.

Like Rip Van Winkle returning to his hometown to find that all has changed, Nathan Zuckerman comes back to New York, the city he left eleven years before. Alone on his New England mountain, Zuckerman has been nothing but a writer: no voices, no media, no terrorist threats, no women, no news, no tasks other than his work and the enduring of old age. Walking the streets like a revenant, he quickly makes three connections that explode his carefully protected solitude. One is with a young couple with whom, in a rash moment, he offers to swap homes. They will flee post-9/11 Manhattan for his country refuge, and he will return to city life. But from the time he meets them, Zuckerman also wants to swap his solitude for the erotic challenge of the young woman, Jaime, whose allure draws him back to all that he thought he had left behind: intimacy, the vibrant play of heart and body.

It is 1951 in America, the second year of the Korean War. A studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, is beginning his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at the local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Es el año en 1951 en Estados Unidos, el segundo año de la Guerra de Corea. Marcus Messner, un estudioso e intenso joven que gusta de amoldar las reglas a su propio antojo, prodecente de Newark, New Jersey, está comenzando su segundo año de estudios en el religioso y conservador campus de la Universidad de Winesburg en Ohio. ¿Por qué razón se encuentra él aquí, y no en la facultad local de Newark donde se matriculó originalmente?

Philip Roth's 28th book is, it seems, the final novel in the Zuckerman series, which began in 1979 with The Ghostwriter . A 71-year-old Nathan Zuckerman returns to New York after more than a decade in rural New England, ostensibly to see a doctor about a prostate condition that has left him incontinent and probably impotent. But Zuckerman being Zuckerman and Roth being Roth, the plot is much complicated than it at first appears. Within a few days of arriving in New York, Zuckerman accidentally encounters Amy Bellette, the woman who was once the muse/wife of his beloved idol, writer S.I. Lonoff; he also meets a young novelist and promptly begins fantasizing about the writer's young and beautiful wife. There's also a subplot about a would-be Lonoff biographer, who enrages Zuckerman with his brashness and ambition, two qualities a faithful Roth reader can't help ascribing to the young, sycophantic Zuckerman himself. As usual, Roth's voice is wise and full of rueful wit, but the plot is contrived (the accidental meeting with Amy, for example, is particularly unbelievable) and the tone hovers dangerously close to pathetic. In the Rothian pantheon, this one lives closer to The Dying Animal than Everyman . (Oct.)

"No matter how much you know, no matter how much you think, no matter how much you plot and you connive and you plan, you're not superior to sex. With these words our most unflaggingly energetic and morally serious novelist launches perhaps his fiercest book. The speaker is David Kepesh, white-haired and over sixty, an eminent cultural critic and star lecturer at a New York college-as well as an articulate propagandist of the sexual revolution. For years he has made a practice of sleeping with adventurous female students while maintaining an aesthete's critical distance. But now that distance has been annihilated. The agency of Kepesh's undoing is Consuela Castillo, the decorous and humblingly beautiful 24-year-old daughter of Cuban exiles. When he becomes involved with her, Kepesh finds himself dragged-helplessly, bitterly, furiously-into the quagmire of sexual jealousy and loss. In chronicling this descent, Philip Roth performs a breathtaking set of variations on the themes of eros and mortality, license and repression, selfishness and sacrifice. The Dying Animal is a burning coal of a book, filled with intellectual heat and not a little danger.

En un divertido y a la vez amargo ejercicio de autocrítica, Portnoy relata su vida, desde su infancia en un típico hogar judío de Nueva Jersey, pasando por su incapacidad de relacionarse con las mujeres de un modo que no sea sexual, hasta los recientes acontecimientos que lo han llevado hasta el diván del psiquiatra. Una irónica visión de las costumbres y psicología judías, y del desmoronamiento del sueño americano.

Roth follows his recent succession of critically acclaimed novels (e.g., American Pastoral, 1997; The Plot Against America, 2004) with a compact meditation on mortality, which partially echoes his 1991 memoir-novel Patrimony.Inspired by the medieval English allegorical drama whose title it shares, it's the story of an erring, death-haunted representative man (never named). It begins as his departed spirit observes his own funeral, then weaves backward and forward throughout his past life, envisioned as inevitable progression from virile youth through morally compromised adulthood and middle age, into "his sixties when his health began giving way and his body seemed threatened all the time," and beyond—into the beyond. This Everyman grows up in Elizabeth, N.J., the son of a benevolent and prosperous jeweler, further blessed by a doting mother and a tirelessly kind and supportive "perfect" older brother. He enjoys a successful career as an advertising agency's art director, but fails at marriage (losing three wives, as he pursues countless other women), and is almost as disastrous a parent, suffering permanent estrangement from the two sons of his first marriage, but achieving a sustaining relationship with daughter (from his second marriage) Nancy, whose patient filial devotion interestingly parallels that of the medieval Everyman's character Good Deeds, who accompanies the title character into the realm of Death. This risky novel is significantly marred by redundancy and discursiveness (especially by a surfeit of rhetorical questions), but energized by vivid writing, palpable emotional intensity and several wrenching scenes—for example, encounters in the painting class that he (an amateur artist) organizes for other seniors at his retirement village; a blistering exchange with second wife Phoebe, long aware of his womanizing; a wonderful conversation with a black gravedigger at the cemetery where his parents are buried, where he'll soon be buried.A rich exploration of the epiphany that awaits us all—that "life's most disturbing intensity is death."

Obra inencontrable e imprescidible de Philip Roth.Exhibiendo su habilidad como brillante observador de la pasión humana, Philip Roth presenta en Engaño el mundo claustrofóbico de las relaciones adúlteras, con una franqueza sin parangón en la fi cción norteamericana. En el centro de Engaño se encuentran dos adúlteros en su escondite. Él es un escritor americano de mediana edad; ella, una elocuente mujer inglesa atrapada en un matrimonio humillante al que, con sólo treinta y tantos años, ya se ha resignado. El ritmo de la novela está sostenido en conversaciones, principalmente las que mantienen los amantes. Este diálogo -ácido, rico, lúdico, inquisitivo- es prácticamente todo lo que hay en este libro , y todo lo que es necesario que haya.

Som a 1951, segon any de la guerra de Corea. Marcus Messner, un jove estudiós, honest i apassionat de Newark, Nova Jersey, comença segon de carrera al conservador campus de Winesburg, Ohio. ¿Per què és allà i no a Robert Treat, la petita universitat de Newark, on ha cursat primer? Perquè el seu pare, un carnisser escarrassat i treballador, sembla haver-se tornat boig boig front els perills de la vida adulta, els perills del món, els perills que veu a cada cantonada i que amenacen el seu fill estimat. La mare, una dona patidora i agobiada, diu que el pare té por per ell perquè se l'estima i perquè se'n sent orgullós. Potser és així, però arriba un dia que Marcus rebenta. Lluny de Newark, es veu abocat a buscar-se un lloc enmig dels costums i de les prohibicions d un món molt diferent del seu, però als mateixos Estats Units. Indignació explica la història de la formació d'un home, de les oportunitats aterradores que li ofereix la vida i dels estranys obstacles amb què topa. És una història d'inexperiència, bogeria, resistència intel"lectual, descobriment sexual, coratge i errors. És una història explicada amb tota l'energia i la brillantor de Philip Roth, que obre un camí nou respecte de les seves darreres novel"les sobre la vellesa i l'experiència i continua les seves investigacions sobre l impacte de la història nord-americana en la vida d'un individu vulnerable.

Qualificada per la crítica nord-americana com una "obra mestra", Pastoral americana es la cronica lúcida i despietada de les il·lusions perdudes de tota una generació. El protagonista de Roth es Swede Levov, atleta llegendari al seu institut de Newark, que creix durant els anys de postguerra, es casa amb una antiga Miss New Jersey, hereta la fabrica de guants del seu pare i es trasllada a una casa de pedra a la vila idil·lica d'Old Rimrock. Fins que un bon dia de 1968 a Swede l'abandona la sort americana que l'havia somrigut fins llavors. Merry, la seva filla estimada, ha crescut. Abans era una noieta adorable i desperta. Ara s'ha convertit en una adolescent malcarada i fanatica capaç de dur a terme un extravagant acte de terrorisme politic. De la nit al dia, Swede es separat de la pastoral americana i llançat a la bogeria americana idiosincratica. Ressenyes:"En l#actual literatura nord-americana esta Philip Roth i, despres, tots els altres."Chicago Tribune "Una de les novel·les mes poderoses que Roth ha escrit mai... Emocionant, esplendida i ambiciosa. Una obra d#art commovedora."The New York Times "Enlluernadora... Una no

Nous sommes en 1951, deuxième année de la guerre de Corée. Marcus Messner, jeune homme de dix neuf ans, intense et sérieux, d'origine juive, poursuit ses études au Winesburg College, dans le fin fond de l'Ohio. Il a quitté l'école de Newark, dans le New Jersey où habite sa famille. Il espère par ce changement échapper la domination de son père, boucher de sa profession, un homme honnête et travailleur, mais qui est depuis quelque temps la proie d'une véritable paranoïa au sujet de son fils bien-aimé. Fierté et amour, telles sont les sources de cette peur panique. Marcus en s'éloignant de ses parents, va tenter sa chance dans une Amérique encore inconnue de lui, pleine d'embûches, de difficultés et de surprises. Indignation, le vingt-neuvième livre de Philip Roth, propose une forme de roman d'apprentissage : c'est une histoire de tâtonnements et d'erreurs, d'audace et de folie, de résistances et de révélations, tant sur le plan sexuel qu'intellectuel. Renonçant sa description minutieuse de la vieillesse et de son cortège de maux, Roth poursuit avec l'énergie habituelle son analyse de l'histoire de l'Amérique - celle des années 1950, des tabous et des frustrations sexuelles - et de son impact sur la vie d'un homme jeune, isolé, vulnérable.

Una novel·la extraordinària en la que Philip Roth torna a sorprendre a través d#una epidèmia.En el calorós estiu del 44, Newark pateix una epidèmia terrorífica que amenaça els nens amb la mutilació,

Una novela extraordinaria donde Philip Roth vuelve a sorprendernos a través de una epidemia.En el «calor sofocante de la Newark ecuatorial» una espantosa epidemia causa estragos y amenaza con dejar

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.

The Humbling, Roth`s thirtieth book, is the shattering account of Simon Axler, one of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, who has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance? told with Roth`s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity.

In 'the stifling heat of equatorial Newark', a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, life-long disability, even death.

« Un nu aux seins opulents, légèrement évasés, pour lequel elle aurait pu poser elle-même. Un nu aux yeux clos, défendu comme elle par sa seule puissance érotique et, comme elle, à la fois primaire et élégant. Un nu mordoré mystérieusement endormi sur un gouffre noir velouté que, dans mon humeur du moment, j'associais à celui de la tombe. Fuselée, ondulante, elle t'attend, la jeune fille, immobile et muette comme la mort. » À l'orée de la vieillesse, David Kepesh, esthète attaché à sa liberté et séducteur exigeant, rencontre parmi ses étudiantes Consuela Castillo, vingt-quatre ans, fille de riches émigrés cubains, « émerveillée » par la culture. Et découvre la dépendance sexuelle... C'est le roman d'un envoûtement dans une Amérique bien loin des joyeuses bacchanales des années soixante, chères au Professeur de désir.. ; Et au tournant du millénaire, cet alter ego de l'auteur, naguère héros du Sein, est confronté non seulement à son propre vieillissement mais à la mort qui rôde en chacun de nous. Après La tache, Philip Roth nous offre à la fois un précis amoureux, une radiographie de notre temps et une méditation sur la condition humaine. Un nouveau chef-d'œuvre, d'une perfection lapidaire.

Dieci interviste, alcuni saggi e i ricordi del famoso scrittore americano.I colloqui che ha avuto negli anni con illustri colleghi raccontano diletteratura, ma esplorano anche le interferenze che da sempre i fatti politicie storici intrattengono con i percorsi artistici e personali di chi scrive.Con Primo Levi discute di quel residuo di razionalità che permise alloscrittore torinese di sopravvivere all'insensatezza di Auschwitz; con Kunderaanalizza la miscela di politica e sessualità che lo resero il più sovversivoscrittore della Cecoslovacchia comunista. Queste e molte altre questioni,fanno di quest'opera un simposio letterario sull'immaginazione e sulle ragionidello scrivere.

Coleman Silk, Professor an einer noblen Ostküsten-Universität, wird wegen einer unbedeutenden Äußerung als Rassist abgestempelt. Eine glanzvolle Karriere endet abrupt. Jahre später holt die Liebesaffäre mit einer sehr viel jüngeren Frau den gebrochenen Mann ins Leben zurück. Doch das Glück ist nur von kurzer Dauer. Eine Hexenjagd beginnt, die tragisch endet, und ein unheilvolles Geheimnis tritt zutage, das Coleman Silk über fünfzig Jahre gehütet hatte.

En su nueva novela Philip Roth crea una audaz hipótesis: 1940 Charles Lindbergh es elegido presidente de América y se eligió a concluir un pacto de amistad con Adolf Hitler. La población judía de los Estados Unidos temía la peor ... Atreverse la nueva novela de Philip Roth imaginar Charles Lindbergh como presidente americano, cruces gamadas en la Casa Blanca y una población judía en el mayor temor ...