***** SPOILER ALERT *****
The story chronicles the last year of young Marcus Messner, son of a kosher butcher, how he becomes indignant and comes face to face with history and finally his not unexpected demise.
Mr. Roth sets the tone of the story by prefacing with part of E.E. Cumming's "i sing Olaf glad and big."
Olaf (Upon what were once knees)If only Marcus could put his righteous indignation aside, eat some shit, perhaps he can live a longer if not happier life. If he just did what he has to do, like when he was eviscerating the entrails of chickens, just something he does, and does well, whether he likes it or not is not even germane. Alas, there is no "if" in life. Life is full of surprises and disappointments and sometimes one wrong move can have the direst consequence as Marcus finds out.
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"
I'm trying hard to understand what this post is about? How does the Philip Roth story connects with the Chinese national anthem????
ReplyDeleteI was glad that you blog about writing until I noticed the label at the bottom!
Small typo alert: "Affectation" rather than "Afftecttation"! :)
How did that little t get in there. Man, affectation has its charm except you I can't even spell it right. No small irony. Ha ha. It's embarrassing for me to talk about reading or writing as I don't do much on either.
ReplyDeleteYou can read the book to find out, it's really a short story, in between cubicle dwelling and being a father and a husband, I finished the book in less than three days. To tell you the truth I bought the book from a street vendor whose source I don't even know or care. So Mr. Roth might not be getting his cut as far as his copyright is concerned.... My bad.
Man you're really adding to my post-thesis reading list!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway I didn't realise that they sell Philip Roth novellas now on the streets of NYC? How cool is that! (My memories of NY street vendors were of the pretzel and roast chestnuts kind). You must continue to show your support for such grassroots literary movement by buying more books from your man, royalty check or no for Mr. Roth himself.