The New Canon focuses on
great works of fiction
published since 1985. These
books represent the finest
literature of the current era,
and are gaining recognition as
the new classics of our time. In
this installment of The New
Canon, Ted Gioia reviews The
Human Stain by Philip Roth.
great works of fiction
published since 1985. These
books represent the finest
literature of the current era,
and are gaining recognition as
the new classics of our time. In
this installment of The New
Canon, Ted Gioia reviews The
Human Stain by Philip Roth.
The Human Stain
by Philip Roth
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Nathan Zuckerman figured as a recurring
character in Philip Roth’s fiction for more
than a quarter century before the publication
of The Human Stain. By any reasonable
measure, this stand-in for the author –-
Zuckerman is a novelist who frequently
reminds of us of Mr. Roth -- would have
been ready for retirement in the year 2000.
He is reclusive and in poor health, and hardly
the right figure to step forth as a protagonist
in an exciting work of fiction.
Zuckerman, in short, is a survivor. He has
survived prostrate cancer –- just barely, and is now incontinent. He
has survived his second divorce. His sex life is kaput. His ties with
the past and his interactions with the external world, have loosened,
indeed almost totally unraveled, and the author has relocated to a
quiet New England cabin where he can pursue the solitary craft of
writing.
Nothing here prepares us for high drama. Yet the aging writer has
one carryover from the past, a skill refined over decades that sets
this powerful tale in motion. Zuckerman is a great observer, with
endless curiosity, and when his solitude is broken by chance
encounters with provocative individuals and events, he feeds on
them ravenously. The details of lives are, after all, the sustenance of
any author, and Zuckerman takes an almost voyeuristic delight in
the stories he can pick up second-hand.
As with that other late great Zuckerman novel, American Pastoral,
The Human Stain builds a rich multilayered novel from a tragic life
observed from afar. Coleman Silk is a former dean and classics
professor at a small local college, whose world collapses after he is
accused of racism. When he notices that two of the students signed
up for his seminar never show up for class, he mutters aloud: "Do
they exist or are they spooks?" But the missing students turn out to
be African-Americans, and the word ‘spook’ is perceived as a racial
slur. His attempts to defuse the controversy are met with hostility,
and Silk resigns in anger at what he sees are unfair accusations.
The life in retirement of this once esteemed academic is now filled
with rage. He heightens the scandal by entering into an affair with
one of the college’s janitors, an illiterate woman much younger than
Silk. This decision embroils him into a potentially explosive conflict
with the woman’s previous lover, a disturbed Vietnam vet. These
details are set against events of the 1990s, in particular the Bill
Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. As in other Zuckerman novels,
Roth creates a masterful counterpoint between individual destinies
and public events. By embedding his narrative in the trials and
tribulations of recent socio-political currents, he constructs
narratives that possess both historical resonance and pointed
contemporary relevance.
But Roth’s adds another key layer to his novel in a series of
flashbacks into Silk’s past life. This powerful story-behind-the-
story not only stands on its own merits as a cautionary tale, but
completely changes how we perceive all of the other interlocking
parts of The Human Stain. The more deeply we understand Silk, the
more we perceive the painful irony – or perhaps one might call it
karma -- of his predicament.
All of the plots and sub-plots meld effortlessly together in this
masterful work. Even the minor characters -- Vietnam vet Lester
Farley or Delphine Roux, Silk’s academic adversary -– are perfectly
realized, setting in motion their own tragedies around the orbit of
Silk’s almost predestined fall from grace.
I often find Roth hit and miss. Some of his works strike me as
lacking sufficient drama, expending too much energy on small scale
effects. But when he writes at this level, with such control of pacing,
plot, prose and personality, he stands out as one of the finest
novelists of recent decades. With The Human Stain, Roth serves
notice that his best known character -- like the author himself -- has
not lost his edge with the passing years.
by Philip Roth
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Nathan Zuckerman figured as a recurring
character in Philip Roth’s fiction for more
than a quarter century before the publication
of The Human Stain. By any reasonable
measure, this stand-in for the author –-
Zuckerman is a novelist who frequently
reminds of us of Mr. Roth -- would have
been ready for retirement in the year 2000.
He is reclusive and in poor health, and hardly
the right figure to step forth as a protagonist
in an exciting work of fiction.
Zuckerman, in short, is a survivor. He has
survived prostrate cancer –- just barely, and is now incontinent. He
has survived his second divorce. His sex life is kaput. His ties with
the past and his interactions with the external world, have loosened,
indeed almost totally unraveled, and the author has relocated to a
quiet New England cabin where he can pursue the solitary craft of
writing.
Nothing here prepares us for high drama. Yet the aging writer has
one carryover from the past, a skill refined over decades that sets
this powerful tale in motion. Zuckerman is a great observer, with
endless curiosity, and when his solitude is broken by chance
encounters with provocative individuals and events, he feeds on
them ravenously. The details of lives are, after all, the sustenance of
any author, and Zuckerman takes an almost voyeuristic delight in
the stories he can pick up second-hand.
As with that other late great Zuckerman novel, American Pastoral,
The Human Stain builds a rich multilayered novel from a tragic life
observed from afar. Coleman Silk is a former dean and classics
professor at a small local college, whose world collapses after he is
accused of racism. When he notices that two of the students signed
up for his seminar never show up for class, he mutters aloud: "Do
they exist or are they spooks?" But the missing students turn out to
be African-Americans, and the word ‘spook’ is perceived as a racial
slur. His attempts to defuse the controversy are met with hostility,
and Silk resigns in anger at what he sees are unfair accusations.
The life in retirement of this once esteemed academic is now filled
with rage. He heightens the scandal by entering into an affair with
one of the college’s janitors, an illiterate woman much younger than
Silk. This decision embroils him into a potentially explosive conflict
with the woman’s previous lover, a disturbed Vietnam vet. These
details are set against events of the 1990s, in particular the Bill
Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. As in other Zuckerman novels,
Roth creates a masterful counterpoint between individual destinies
and public events. By embedding his narrative in the trials and
tribulations of recent socio-political currents, he constructs
narratives that possess both historical resonance and pointed
contemporary relevance.
But Roth’s adds another key layer to his novel in a series of
flashbacks into Silk’s past life. This powerful story-behind-the-
story not only stands on its own merits as a cautionary tale, but
completely changes how we perceive all of the other interlocking
parts of The Human Stain. The more deeply we understand Silk, the
more we perceive the painful irony – or perhaps one might call it
karma -- of his predicament.
All of the plots and sub-plots meld effortlessly together in this
masterful work. Even the minor characters -- Vietnam vet Lester
Farley or Delphine Roux, Silk’s academic adversary -– are perfectly
realized, setting in motion their own tragedies around the orbit of
Silk’s almost predestined fall from grace.
I often find Roth hit and miss. Some of his works strike me as
lacking sufficient drama, expending too much energy on small scale
effects. But when he writes at this level, with such control of pacing,
plot, prose and personality, he stands out as one of the finest
novelists of recent decades. With The Human Stain, Roth serves
notice that his best known character -- like the author himself -- has
not lost his edge with the passing years.
| The New Canon |
| The Best in Fiction Since 1985 |
The New Canon
Home Page
Gabriel García Márquez:
Love in the Time of Cholera
David Foster Wallace:
Infinite Jest
Margaret Atwood:
The Handmaid's Tale
Toni Morrison:
Beloved
Jonathan Franzen:
The Corrections
Don DeLillo:
Underworld
Zadie Smith:
White Teeth
Roberto Bolaño:
2666
Mark Z. Danielewski:
House of Leaves
Cormac McCarthy:
Blood Meridian
Philip Roth:
American Pastoral
Jonathan Lethem:
The Fortress of S0litude
Haruki Murakami:
Kafka on the Shore
Edward P. Jones:
The Known World
Ian McEwan:
Atonement
Michael Chabon:
The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay
Philip Roth:
The Human Stain
Mario Vargas Llosa:
The Feast of the Goat
Marilynne Robinson:
Gilead
David Mitchell:
Cloud Atlas
José Saramago:
Blindness
Jennifer Egan:
A Visit from the Good Sqad
W. G. Sebald:
Austerlitz
Jeffrey Eugenides
The Marriage Plot
Donna Tartt:
The Secret History
Michael Ondaatje:
The English Patient
Saul Bellow:
Ravelstein
A.S. Byatt:
Possession
Umberto Eco:
Foucault's Pendulum
Cormac McCarthy:
The Road
David Foster Wallace:
The Pale King
J.K. Rowling:
Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone
Arundhati Roy:
The God of Small Things
Roberto Bolaño:
The Savage Detectives
Paul Auster:
The New York Trilogy
Per Petterson:
Out Stealing Horses
Ann Patchett:
Bel Canto
Ben Okri:
The Famished Road
Joseph O'Neill:
Netherland
Haruki Murakami:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Marisha Pessl:
Special Topics in Calamity
Physics
Jonathan Franzen:
Freedom
Colm Tóibín:
The Master
Denis Johnson:
Tree of Smoke
Richard Russo:
Empire Falls
Alice Munro:
Runaway
Martin Amis:
London Fields
Mark Haddon:
The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-Time
John Banville:
The Sea
Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club
Jeffrey Eugenides:
Middlesex
Junot Diaz:
The Brief Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wao
Aravind Adiga:
The White Tiger
Tim O'Brien:
The Things They Carried
Irvine Welsh
Trainspotting
Tobias Wolff:
Old School
Tim Winton:
Cloudstreet
David Foster Wallace:
Oblivion
Oscar Hijuelos:
The Mambo Kings Play
Songs of Love
More to come
Recommended Links:
Great Books Guide
Conceptual Fiction
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's personal web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
American Fiction Notes
LA Review of Books
The Big Read
Critical Mass
The Elegant Variation
Dana Gioia
The Literary Saloon
The Millions
The Misread City
Page-Turner
Page Views
Disclosure note: Writers on this site and its
sister sites may receive promotional copies of
works under review.
Home Page
Gabriel García Márquez:
Love in the Time of Cholera
David Foster Wallace:
Infinite Jest
Margaret Atwood:
The Handmaid's Tale
Toni Morrison:
Beloved
Jonathan Franzen:
The Corrections
Don DeLillo:
Underworld
Zadie Smith:
White Teeth
Roberto Bolaño:
2666
Mark Z. Danielewski:
House of Leaves
Cormac McCarthy:
Blood Meridian
Philip Roth:
American Pastoral
Jonathan Lethem:
The Fortress of S0litude
Haruki Murakami:
Kafka on the Shore
Edward P. Jones:
The Known World
Ian McEwan:
Atonement
Michael Chabon:
The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay
Philip Roth:
The Human Stain
Mario Vargas Llosa:
The Feast of the Goat
Marilynne Robinson:
Gilead
David Mitchell:
Cloud Atlas
José Saramago:
Blindness
Jennifer Egan:
A Visit from the Good Sqad
W. G. Sebald:
Austerlitz
Jeffrey Eugenides
The Marriage Plot
Donna Tartt:
The Secret History
Michael Ondaatje:
The English Patient
Saul Bellow:
Ravelstein
A.S. Byatt:
Possession
Umberto Eco:
Foucault's Pendulum
Cormac McCarthy:
The Road
David Foster Wallace:
The Pale King
J.K. Rowling:
Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone
Arundhati Roy:
The God of Small Things
Roberto Bolaño:
The Savage Detectives
Paul Auster:
The New York Trilogy
Per Petterson:
Out Stealing Horses
Ann Patchett:
Bel Canto
Ben Okri:
The Famished Road
Joseph O'Neill:
Netherland
Haruki Murakami:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Marisha Pessl:
Special Topics in Calamity
Physics
Jonathan Franzen:
Freedom
Colm Tóibín:
The Master
Denis Johnson:
Tree of Smoke
Richard Russo:
Empire Falls
Alice Munro:
Runaway
Martin Amis:
London Fields
Mark Haddon:
The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-Time
John Banville:
The Sea
Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club
Jeffrey Eugenides:
Middlesex
Junot Diaz:
The Brief Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wao
Aravind Adiga:
The White Tiger
Tim O'Brien:
The Things They Carried
Irvine Welsh
Trainspotting
Tobias Wolff:
Old School
Tim Winton:
Cloudstreet
David Foster Wallace:
Oblivion
Oscar Hijuelos:
The Mambo Kings Play
Songs of Love
More to come
Recommended Links:
Great Books Guide
Conceptual Fiction
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's personal web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
American Fiction Notes
LA Review of Books
The Big Read
Critical Mass
The Elegant Variation
Dana Gioia
The Literary Saloon
The Millions
The Misread City
Page-Turner
Page Views
Disclosure note: Writers on this site and its
sister sites may receive promotional copies of
works under review.