Exit Ghost
by Philip Roth
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Book Reviews of Exit Ghost
Book Review: Pointless
Summary: 2 Stars
As a huge Roth fan, I was disappointed by this one. I recommend reading Christopher Hitchens' review of it: he makes a lot of good points in it.
This is Zuckerman at his most annoying; he is impotent and madly in lust with a young shiksa fox, yet Roth doesn't write the book with sympathy for him, he seems like he doesn't know what he's trying to say. Most of this book is metafictional masturbation in the form of Zuckerman's fantasies written out in play form. This is a tired and cheap conceit which adds nothing of any substance to the novel (we know what Zuckerman wants and thinks like! There's eight other books with him as the main character!).
Hitchens will agree that this book is predictable, unsatisfying, and without any purpose. I give it two stars simply because it is Roth and he couldn't write a one star book if he tried.
Book Review: Self-endulgent and boring
Summary: 2 Stars
Exit Ghost was my first "Zuckerman" story, and even without knowing the history it was immediately obvious that Roth was writing about himself. Also obvious was that this is the latest effort in an on-going, self-indulgent exercise. Certainly Roth writes well, but capturing attention requires more than that, and a few chapters were all I could manage. I suppose that readers who've read earlier "Zuckerman" stories might want to see how it all ended, but as a stand-alone story it was just boring.
By the way Mr. Roth, having voted about 75% Democrat and 25% Republican in my own lifetime, I find it difficult to understand how anyone could think it exemplary or intelligent to have voted 100% one way or the other over their lifetime. Why on earth would you brag about behaving like an automaton?
Book Review: Indestructible
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know which scene I liked better -- the deconstruction of George Plimpton or the scene where Joseph Conrad is being read out loud. The former, I drank in the long description about social status and its impact on Plimpton and his experiential journalism. The latter, among the most heartfelt scenes I've ever encountered, not only because I'm a big fan of Conrad. How Roth weaves in themes of alteration and fragility and frailty and the temporal spirit of mankind is, quite simply, amazing. Being relentlessly blunt -- that's the key with Roth. You are never disappointed because he never holds back. He creates a nice triangle of love-hate here and the bitterness and tenderness are interwoven like a tightly wound, dare I suggest...mortal coil.Book Review: Is Auster Haunting Roth?
Summary: 3 Stars
Has anyone noticed that Exit Ghost echoes the novels of Paul Auster? Roth's plain spoken prose, his emphasis on storytelling, the incredible coincidences that propel the narrative, the description of contemporary New York literary and intellectual life, the references to Hawthorne, the existential gloom, the dashing between New England and New York -- all of these elements contribute to an Auster-like performance that is quite un-Rothian but, like most of Auster's novels themselves, wonderfully entertaining. Is Exit Ghost Roth's homage to Paul Auster?Book Review: Strange pleasure
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay. I'm a Roth fan. I've been one since my teens. And this is the kind of small personal novel I like best. What a strange but absolute pleasure being inside the head of poor, tortured, impotent and incontinent Zuckerman. Not many others can write so dangerously close to the bone, spiral through so many layers of meaning, and remain totally accessible and wildly entertaining.
Much prefer Roth focused in on the mind and body of one alter-ego, than working with a cast of more thinly drawn characters (as in The Human Stain).