Everyman in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 31, 2014 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fiction

On one level, structurally at least, Everyman operates as a traditional novel, and not a particularly adventurous one. Family and friends gather for the funeral of a man, in his 70s and with a history of health problems, who has died (on the operating table). People reminisce, the good, the bad, etc. A mixed bag with multiple marriages (it is Roth after all), with multiple voices throwing in their two cents. And then the novel shifts to the Everyman of the title, and we now hear this man's histo On one level, structurally at least, Everyman operates as a traditional novel, and not a particularly adventurous one. Family and friends gather for the funeral of a man, in his 70s and with a history of health problems, who has died (on the operating table). People reminisce, the good, the bad, etc. A mixed bag with multiple marriages (it is Roth after all), with multiple voices throwing in their two cents. And then the novel shifts to the Everyman of the title, and we now hear this man's history through his voice. But in Roth's hands, all of this, cloaked in what seems to be a straightforward tale, comes out also, seamlessly, as a profound meditation on Life -- and approaching Death. It's a really sad book, but it's also a very wise book. Death is dominant, but there is also a remarkable thread of life that runs through it. Or, as one of the reviewers on the book jacket beautifully termed it, a "ribbon of memory."

As I read on, I couldn't help but find myself replaying my own "ribbon of memory," the good, the bad, the beautiful. To my mind, that's fiction operating at its highest levels as both Story and Truth. (Faulkner would probably just call it all Memory.) Especially moving are Roth's passages regarding the protagonist's boyhood memories of the beach and the sea. This one in particular (such a beautiful piece of writing) had me recalling my own childhood at Nags Head, but also my adulthood, as I now struggle through the surf (with older, shakier legs), and watch my boys doing the same with me:

But how much time could a man spend remembering the best of boyhood? What about enjoying the best of old age? Or was the best of old age just that -- longing for the best of boyhood, for the tubular sprout that was then his body and that rode the waves from way out from where they began to build, rode them with his arms pointed like an arrowhead and skinny rest of him following behind like an arrow's shaft, rode them all the way in to where his rib cage scraped against the tiny sharp pebbles and jagged clam shells and pulverized seashells at the edge of the shore and hustled to his feet and hurriedly turned and went lurching through the low surf until it was knee high and deep enough for him to plunge in and begin swimming madly out the rising breakers -- into the advancing, green Atlantic, rolling unstoppably toward him like the obstinate fact of the future -- and, if he was lucky, make it there in time to catch the next big wave and then the next and the next and the next until from the low slant of sunlight glittering across the water he knew it was time to go. He ran home barefoot and wet and salty, remembering the mightiness of that immense sea boiling in his own two ears and licking his forearm to taste his skin fresh from the ocean and baked by the sun..

I can see myself returning to this passage, with its timeless and comforting circle of sea and self and memory, again and again in the years to come. Fiction that has that kind of impact is more than Fiction. ...more

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Aug 15, 2014 Jason rated it really liked it

This is my first affair with uber-famous and renowned author Philip Roth, and I do not regret it. "Everyman" seems a very good book to start with, if you're going to take an interest in this Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, who has no less than six novels on the New York Times list of "best American novels."

An unnamed man has died. His family has gathered for his funeral in a lonely cemetery off the Interstate. Kind but hollow words are expressed in lieu of his passing. We are soon taken back into This is my first affair with uber-famous and renowned author Philip Roth, and I do not regret it. "Everyman" seems a very good book to start with, if you're going to take an interest in this Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, who has no less than six novels on the New York Times list of "best American novels."

An unnamed man has died. His family has gathered for his funeral in a lonely cemetery off the Interstate. Kind but hollow words are expressed in lieu of his passing. We are soon taken back into the consciousness of this Everyman, and the novel then jumps around from one major existential epiphany in his life to another, often with some sort of hospital stay or surgery the catalyst for this realization. The man is, of course, not too different from any of us modern liberal males with some education or talent. He is married three times, has two sons who resent him but one daughter who can seemingly take no fault with any of his actions. He has affairs that he later regrets, and resents his older brother for always having better physical health than he does. He moves out of New York out of fear of further terrorist attacks, and then finds himself miserable and lonely out on the Jersey shore.

Many things in this novel struck me, and I found myself quite moved and/or troubled by the things written here. Roth has a wonderful voice at times, and I underlined several beautifully written passages (I love when a writer actually inspires me to look for my pen and underline their work). The book is not incredibly imaginative, and there is not that much here that I don't think I myself could pull off in a novel. I also got a little bored with its incredible Jewishness, which I could care less about. I was warned beforehand by a friend that all of this guy's work is very Jew-y, so I was not too shocked.

With these minor caveats aside, "Everyman" is indeed a moving work. To deny the book its emotional and existential weight would be a lie, and a disservice to what Roth has done here. I really enjoyed this one, and it had me peering at my own life pretty hard.

Great book, and a nice segue into Roth's other work. Next: "The Plot Against America." ...more

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