I'd rather read A Dying Animal, for the same themes and slightly less brevity. Some of the sex at an advanced age reminded me of Sabbath's Theatre, but I think this is the first time I've read Roth write about a dildo (let alone a strap-on). At least it was shorter! In fact, being so short probably saved it from being self-indulgent. There's some lovely scenes in here, the conversation over art-therapy in hospital, Pegeen decorating her rooms, that capture a picture of human interaction and feeling. But some of it is dreadfully contrived, like the confrontation with the dean snooping in the windows. It's a little like a working draft that pulled together a couple of ideas and characters that were worthwhile and strung them together. I find it's missing the high consideration and attention to detail that would have made it great. But, not a bad way to spend an hour or two. And for the first time, I am actually looking forward to the film adaptation. Well I am probably not being impartial, but I love this novel as much as I have loved everything I have read from this absolutely great author. This is the story of the last torrid romance of an aging actor whose life is technically over and who meets a woman 25 years his junior, and spends 18 amazing months with her.I would spare one of two sexually explicit images, but that is the kind of thing you have to bear if you want to enjoy good writing: one or two pages of "two much" pornography or whatever, but I can live with it as long as I have all the other marvelous pages to delight myself with. Roth is not perfect, and no human is, and I forgive him for those mishaps because everything else in the novel is just excellent.
Do You like book L'umiliazione (2009)?
An intense one, coming from a theatrical background, I enjoyed the concept, related to it some.
—JessRam
Excellent introduction to Roth. Depiction of the fractured soul.
—trob
Finally a Roth book that I actually throughly enjoyed!
—val
