Thoughts on Roth's "Human Stain"
I sent part of this in an email to Terry of Summa Mamas so I thought I'd blog it too. Cutting and pasting is a magical thing.
About the book: I have mixed emotions. Some of it I really liked. I read most of it on a cruise in January and I wonder if I was unduly influenced by the environment. I think I could read "Dick and Jane" while sipping drinks next to the ocean and think it a work of genius.
But I thought it was entertaining and parts of it exceptional. I'm glad I read something by Roth, who is supposedly the best of the best of modern authors.
One test is how many dog-eared pages (I dog-ear great passages) and there was maybe seven or so, i.e average. The character of that Delphine Roux though was as finely drawn as anything in Dickens. Really vivid.
It's nice I can read a modern author and not be assaulted by sex. It's the reason I haven't read Franzen's "The Corrections". Ham of Bone read it and said the message was basically nihilistic with lots of very vivid sexual imagery. Not exactly what I need, ya know? Call me a Puritan, but don't call me late to dinner.
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