The Counterlife

by Philip Roth

Book Overview

The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate. Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140097694
• ISBN13: 9780140097696
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 371 Pages
• Weight: 0.09 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Roth's "Variations On a Theme"

This is the best novel I have read by Philip Roth (so far). It is unlike anything I have read by him before, or by many others, for that matter. When I finished it, I was reminded of a number of musical compositions called "Variations On a Theme By xxxxx), in which a composer takes a theme by another composer and then composes several variations on that theme. Here, however, the original theme is by Roth himself, so that Roth is writing variations on his own theme. I don't like people who write reviews with spoilers, so I won't do that here, in that I won't reveal any crucial plot elements. However, I don't believe it would ruin any prospective reader's enjoyment to reveal the book's basic structure. The book is divided into 5 sections. In the first, a major event occurs to one of the characters. In the second, the tape is rewound and that same character's life takes another course. In the third and, in my opinion, the most expendable part of the book, which follows directly from the second section, an unsettling event happens to one of the other main characters. In the fourth, the tape is rewound once again and the same thing that happened to one of the characters in the first section happens to one of the other characters. The fifth section follows directly from the second without the events in the third section having happened. Moreover, in this section one of the characters becomes aware that she is a character in a novel and begins talking back to the author. Confused? I wouldn't blame you if you were. However, the book does come together with remarkable coherence at the end because it deals with several universal human themes. I think all human beings have "what ifs?" in their lives. Haven't all of us wondered at time what our lives would have been like if such and such hadn't happened. Roth shows us several different scenarios as to how things might have turned out for his characters. Another major theme is Jewish identity: how does a Jew fit into a society where he is a minority and perhaps an outsider? Or, does he reject that society and go to Israel, where Jews run the show? How does a gentile who is in no way anti-Semitic manage a relationship with a Jew she loves but who is also full of anger at the history of anti-Semitism? Finally, what is real and what isn't? What is the difference between fiction and reality? This is not an original theme, to be sure, but rather handles it with exceptional skill and finesse. Finally, I must comment on Roth's prose style. Roth writes the clearest and most lucid prose of any modern American writer, with the possible exception of John Updike. Reading Roth is nearly effortless. What may be difficult and may cause the reader to pause are the ideas he discusses, but never the prose style. I cannot recommend this book highly enough as a riveting and talented read.

The Most Universal Piece of literature. A must for everyone!!!

I encountered Philip Roth's genius of intellect and understanding of social behavior via "The Counterlife", actually the unique of his titles I have read so far. Moreover, I admit, the finest publication I have ever obtained. Roth enchants with utterly well endowed vocabulary and prose. In addition, the author simultaneously conveys completely dissimilar philosophical perceptions, religious attachments, and life experiences. Line by line he describes Jewish people, in particular, The American Diaspora's idiosyncrasy. It seems to me as if Roth's desire is to put into words ideas about Jewish Secularism: American Jews in particular. He attains this by positioning side by side the extremes: Diaspora's Secularism against Zionism, meaning of real Jewish beliefs to American's or European's Anti-Semitism, self contempt against ethnicity, among others. Actually he tricks the reader. He leads one to think this novel has solely a Jewish title. He is a universal writer. Everything told applies to the so well known universal compulsion into trying to stereotype people into one or another psychological category. This is universal. It relates to whites, Afro-Americans, Catholics, Hispanics, etc. It is a world's tendency. Even to me, native of a country were prejudice or racism does not go further that the semantics, since we are all creatures of a cocktail of different races and religions. The more one tries to conceal what one is, the higher is the propensity of falling into the stereotyped world. Using a Jewish example found in The Counterlife, the more secular Nathan says he is-one of his main protagonists-, the more he says not to be an observant, the more it bothers him to have a son uncircumcised. The Brit Mila has to be perfect. Moreover, the Bar Mitzvah grandiose, even if the kid doesn't comprehend anything. Isn't it right that there is an abnormal tendency to catalogue us all into Freudian or not Freudian misbehavior, self compulsion is universal in our modern generations? I am certain that the hint to the success of antidepressants around the world, with thousands of drugs claiming to be the panaceas for us all is actually self hatred. Does not the media blinds or Brian-washes us to be perfect, beautiful, sexual, virile, and slim, among others? No wonder each and all of us desires to escape, and that is what "The Counterlife" conveys in each of his five chapters: escapism from reality. Philip Roth employs sarcasm, irony, jokes, satire, euphemisms, and grabs them all up to conceive this important peace of literature that should to be read more than once. It owns magnetism and excellence. I recommend it with an open and honest heart.

One of his most interesting books

This is not the very best Roth, but it is in the second tier . It is a very interesting book. The whole business of exploring alternative paths of life for different characters, of understanding that each of us might have had another life, a counterlife is interesting. One however negative effect of this is that it makes the reader understand the character as something less than real, as a toy, a game being played. Nonetheless Roth plays the game with great skill and verbal magic. And he is especially good at showing us the troubles and tribulations of middle age or late middle age. I found also his consideration of the Jewish situation quite interesting, and his arguing for the superiority of the Diaspora to life in Israel a true provocation. For as one who has lived in Israel for years and believes it to be not only the only Jewish state but the one place in the world where Jews are making their communal history I was in some sense angered and offended by Roth's parodying of ' the settlers' and Jewish nationalism in general. Yet while I was offended by what to my mind is a superficial reading of Jewish history and Israeli reality I could not help laughing at certain sections of the book carried off with a comic brilliance which so far as I know is unequalled by any writer today.

"An Australia for Jews" - a sad core amidst fine satire

This is a funny, satirical literary novel about the clownish mid-life crisis of a typical suburban Jewish New Jersey dentist - yes, it's Roth country! But at it's heart, in the Israel section of the book, the farce suddenly dies away: I found the sad, powerful tale of the character "Shuki" unexpectedly moving: Shuki, one of the original European settlers of Israel, who enthusiastically built Israel and fought in the front line through all the troubles, is now an exhausted, world-weary man. He sees all the talented Jews of the world settling in places like the USA, Canada, Britain and France, whereas forty years of unrelenting war have turned Israel (he says) into "an Australia for Jews," a place where the first rate don't emigrate to anymore, only the most hopeless come now, those without the skills or talent to get them into the First World, who must experience a day to day tension so profound it's like a recreation of the pogroms of Russia. Roth's stunning departure from the farcical aspects of his story and Shuki's blunt assessments hit the reader like a succession of boxer's blows, the reader lulled previously by all the fine satire and good story telling. Luckily, the farce returns quickly, and we're off for more crazy adventures with the suburban New Jersey dentist and his writer brother, but this is a unexpectedly a very powerful book, and though it came out a few years ago it is, of course, especially moving right now in these troubled times.Don't miss Roth's other novels if you like this one. I also recommend Dawn Powell's *The Golden Spur*, Simon Raven's *Alms For Oblivion* series, Sandor Marai's *Embers*, the poetry of Philip Larkin and Paul Theroux's *Kowloon Tong*. And all of Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen.

Philip Roth's The Counterlife - A Quest for Identity

Philip Roth is one of the most highly acclaimed Jewish-American writers of our time, and The Counterlife confirms his skill as a craftsman and a philosopher on Jewish matters. Roth creates perfect environments for the scrutiny of a subject one frequently encounters in his work: The intellectual secular Jewish male's search for and affirmation of his identity. This theme is woven into each of the novel's five chapters, which are authored in first-person narrative by the fictional writer Nathan Zuckerman. Zuckerman defines identity by weighing secularity against religious fervor, masculinity against femininity, potency against impotency, and Jewish awareness against anti-Semitism. While the novel is set in Zuckerman's fictional world, the chapters each tell separate stories. The situations Zuckerman creates vary, and thus three forms of Jewish identity between which he seems to be caught are examined. Zuckerman experiences the identities of the secular son of traditional Jewish parents, of being a militant Jew's brother, and of the son-in-law grappling with his mother-in-law's anti-Semitism which causes the failure of yet another attempt at family life. Similar themes can be identified in Roth's other works, such as Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint. However, the post-modern structure of The Counterlife allows for their juxtaposition within one novel, thereby offering the reader a spectrum of the protagonist's issues of identity. Roth's prose is explicit, witty, and even funny, making the novel a truely enjoyable and engaging read. In the interest of authenticity, he does not recoil from using obscenities. He mocks Jewish-American militancy and pseudo-religiosity by the creation of Ben-Joseph, the author of the "Five Books of Jimmy," who really misses baseball in Israel and later hijacks an El Al plane for hopeless ends. Nevertheless, Roth does not lose sight of the danger inherent in this militancy. Zuckerman finds his brother's carrying a gun alarming. He detects a loss of "Henry's [his brother's] Henriness," and wonders whether Henry has "developed, postoperatively, a taste for the ersatz in life". A well-rounded novel, and certainly a must for those interested in Jewish-American writing.