Rate this book

A Humilhação (2009)

by Philip Roth(Favorite Author)

3.15 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Publicações Dom Quixote

review 1: This was an unexpectedly underdeveloped Roth entry. His mastery is such that you still relate to the character and are attentive to each sentence, but the whole was ultimately predictable. And, not to sound Sarah Lawrence about it, but this was the first time I've found something in Roth's fifty-year body of work that struck me as kind of offensive regarding queer folk. I'm trying not to care, because his writing about gay men in Portnoy's Complaint didn't offend me and his rather dark depiction of a gay male character in the novel he wrote immediately prior to this one, Indignation, seemed quite full and sensitive. This time...not so much. But on the whole, maybe I'm in a different place or maybe he did indeed have a misstep. Either way the man has earned my loyalty. The ... morenarrative itself is a little weak. An actor loses his talent--a risk for those who do not train but rely instead on instinct--and subsequently falls for and is left by a much younger lesbian. I feel like the material is more than enough for Roth to mine brilliance out of it. Somehow, it didn't resolve this time.
review 2: Simon Axler is a sixty five-year-old man who is struggling to regain his "magic, talent, and assurance" in acting. He surrenders himself to a mental hospital, and afterwards retreats to a New York Country House. Here, he is visited by Pegeen Mike Stapleford, who he believes to be his deliverance.I read the book with a constant nagging sensation that surely, there was a deeper meaning to all of it. The way Roth wrote the book certainly pushed me towards that direction. He explores a problem that was not only faced by his character, but is really faced by all of us in each point of our lives (am I starting to sound too philosophical here? blame the book). After all, we each have our own performances, albeit in different stages.The book was only 140 pages long, but it was difficult for me to read. The dialouges did not flow as smoothly as I had expected, and often I had to push my way through paragraphs of a character's speech. This is usually not a problem for me, but I think Roth failed to make his dialouges as readable as he could. Also, I felt that many of the characters lacked proper back story. Their histories were rushed through in one or two pages, which made it difficult for me to connect fully with them.Certain parts of the book kept me entertained. And I think the average reader would find it quite pleasing to finish. less

Download links for: A Humilhação

Advertising