Exit Ghost
by Philip Roth
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Book Reviews of Exit Ghost
Book Review: Encountering Zuckerman at the End
Summary: 5 Stars
I was fortunate to read a pre-publication edition of "Exit Ghost", and was immediately hooked on Zuckerman. I hadn't read the other eight novels in the Zuckerman saga, so I was faced with a painful quandry.
I won't spoil the plot here, but I started to fear halfway through that Roth was going to kill Zuckerman off as implied by the title. Of course, even if he did, I would still have the prior eight books to enjoy. But then I would know the end in advance. So if you haven't met Zuckerman yet, start with "The Ghost Writer".
Anyway, I did finish the book and ordered the Library of America compendium "Zuckerman Bound". By the way, Zuckerman is really impressed that Library of America is publishing all his books. Or is that Roth who's impressed? However, Zuckerman (or is it Roth?) makes the point very forcefully that anyone who thinks that a novelist writing about a novelist is really writing autobiography is an idiot.
If you already know about Zuckerman and E.I. Lonoff et.al., you will undoubtedly buy this book immediately. If not, you will undoubtedly buy it eventually. For a reading addict, there is nothing better than discovering a great new series.
Book Review: A Voice That Becomes Better With Age
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me make a confession: I am a Philip Roth junkie. Each year, I look forward to reading a new book by Mr. Roth, who tackles some of the difficult questions that plague us, yet those with which most of us fail to discuss.
In his newest book, Exit Ghost, Mr. Roth gives us an aging, reclusive, incontenent and impotent character in the form of Nathan Zuckerman. As Zuckerman faces his own physical limitations, he must also tackle those salacious thoughts that occupy his mind, so he develops a fantasy world as a way to handle himself.
I do not want to repeat what other readers have said in their reviews. Frankly, I think Philip Roth's voice has become better with age. His words, and his last three books, have changed my own live, which is what a good author is supposed to do. Since Roth gives no interviews nor lectures, I can only hope that he reads some of these reviews.
Philip Roth is the greatest living American voice in literature today. I hope he is given the praise and recognition that he deserves, and it would be a great gift if he is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this year.
Book Review: Madame Bovary, c'est toi!
Summary: 3 Stars
First, let me explain the title of my review. In this novel, Philip Roth's narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, 71, leaves his country retreat behind and returns to old flames in New York city, Amy Bellette on one hand and erotic conquest on the other. The woman he tries to conquer is a married thirty-one year old sex kitten. Neither Zuckerman, nor the reader ever gets to know her despite the reams of facts that are given about her. Zuckerman's obsession with this young woman is the heart of the novel, despite Zuckerman's tirades about the past, aging, dead friends, and writing. Whereas Flaubert wrote about infatuation from the married woman's point of view, Roth writes from the potential lover's point of view. Zuckerman wants to be the seductive text and the lover. Unfortunately, he is only able to be a man in love, telegraphing over and over: Come live with me and be my love. Of course, if she comes, he'll be able to say: "Madame Bovary, c'est toi!"
Fortunately, for two full pages, the woman Zuckerman is in love is able to be the seductive text when she reads outloud a writer they both love.
Book Review: Character driven novel w/focus on internal monologue
Summary: 4 Stars
Exit Ghost focuses on 71 year old Nathan Zuckerman, writer, thinker, hermit. He comes back to NYC after a 10yr retreat in his rural cabin.
Reading this novel, you become intimate with Zuckerman, his every thought and the rational behind every decision. There are long dialogues with other characters. If you're looking for action, this isn't it. Not much drama happening here, except that created by the characters in their own minds.
Roth writes superb sentences. He summarizes situations profoundly in a few words. The structure and story hold together, and i like the devices Roth uses in writing the novel. It's a solid piece of work.
Personally, it's my opinion that Roth portrays Zuckerman as Joyce portrays S. Daedalus. But Roth would hate that i'm expressing my opinion on his work, and that you're wasting your time reading my opinion. In a perfect literary world, critics wouldn't comment, and readers would consume only the author's work.
Book Review: completely overrated
Summary: 3 Stars
I doubt there are many people who anticipated the new Zuckerman novel more eagerly than I did. I was sorely disappointed. "Exit Ghost" rehashes many of the themes already covered more deftly in "Everyman"--namely, the ravages of aging and the crushing inevitability of death. ("Exit Ghost" also deals with other Roth obsessions, including his insistence that a clear line separates the life of an artist and his art; Roth has addressed this issue far more masterfully in prior works as well.) But this time around the reader must endure a small cast of poorly drawn characters, utterly unconvincing dialogue and, perhaps worst of all, a prose style that is uncharacteristically stilted. Roth/Zuckerman seems to have lost his literary mojo. But perhaps that's the point: the reader gets to witness, in all its horror, the waning artistic powers of a once great writer.