The Elegant Variation: THINKING ABOUT ROTH II

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August 18, 2008

THINKING ABOUT ROTH II

A handful of random Roth thoughts, having now finished Indignation. (No, I'm not going to tell you what I thought, at least not yet.)

1) In the novel, the Newark-born Jewish protagonist (sound familiar) heads out to the sticks, attending college in Winesburg, Ohio. Now, we can all assume that Roth makes no decisions – especially one so obvious – lightly, so it seems to me that in order to properly read Indignation, one needs to read Winesburg, Ohio. Which I haven't. But I am now. This is how I work my reviews. One book invariably leads to another. It's part of the fun, undoubtedly, but can also exponentially increase the work involved.

2) In recent interviews, Peter Carey and Andrew Sean Greer complained about reviews that betrayed a key secret of their respective novels. Well, Indignation affords a similar opportunity for betrayal – there's a key story element/twist, and it will be interesting to see how other reviewers, as well as I, deal with it. The problem is you can contort a review into coy knots to avoid revealing these things, but you end up, I think, with a review that doesn't really engage with the book. It speaks, I suppose, to what kind of review one is writing – a mere consumer report (buy or don't buy), in which case, one should preserve secrets as much as possible; or a thoughtful engagement with a piece of work, which, it seems to me, simply can't be done when you're forever holding one closed palm behind your back. I'm not entirely sure what I will do here, other than announce load and clear that a major spoiler is coming if I chose to reveal something.

3) Thinking about Roth's familiar touches, motifs repeated, things like that, I thought that an instructive comparison might be made to Picasso. Besides a lifelong fascination with sex (with a dose of terrified mortality thrown in near the end), the symbols of Picasso's art were always personal, almost narcissistic: His lovers, his family, his personal iconography – bulls, harlequins, matadors – put a personal stamp on his body of work that bears some resemblance to Roth's own concerns. The so-called political The Plot Against America – of which Roth has disavowed political readings – can be instructively compared to Guernica which, despite its inspiration, is a resolutely personal work. (Something, incidentally, Picasso has been criticized for.) Just a connection noted.

Posted at 08:09 PM in The Summer of Roth | Permalink

Comments

Also in the midst of writing my own review of Indignation, I am also struggling with how to deal with the 'Big Twist.' So far I am working with a sort of half-revelation, acknowledging the voice of the narrator and then moving on.

I've never read Winesburg, Ohio either. I've made a few false starts, but after a few days of refusing myself and then reading your response here, I think I may need to actually break down and get to it.

Posted by: Jon Polk | August 18, 2008 at 11:45 PM

Book criticism in popular magazines and newspapers has a fundamental commercial element to it—otherwise reviews would not be published contemporaneously with book release dates. That means people reading a such a book review might well go out and buy the book depending on the reviewer’s appraisal of it. I’ve never agreed with those who think that it somehow cheapens popular book criticism to have such criticism play a role in the book business; I would like to see some of the excellent but less-prominent books I review do well. So I think both of you should refrain from giving anything away unless the twist in this novel (which I haven’t read) is absolutely indispensable to your line of argument or your understanding of the book’s meaning. (Mere plot twists are frequently more superficial than that.) Don’t let some over-serious notion of purity in literary criticism overshadow the plain fact that a spoiler in your review will ruin the book for many readers.

Posted by: Michael O'D | August 19, 2008 at 10:53 AM

I'm still waiting for an opportune time to sit down with Roth's second - and biggest - novel, 'Letting Go'. But, based on what you've said, and knowing only scant details of 'Indignation', 'Columbus, Ohio' may also be worth a read, if you haven't already done so. Thankfully, it's just a nudge beyond a hundred pages.

Posted by: Stewart | August 27, 2008 at 04:47 PM

Because I was thinking of Winesburg, Ohio I've went and typed Columbus, Ohio. I meant Goodbye, Columbus, Roth's first work.

Posted by: Stewart | August 28, 2008 at 10:54 AM

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The Elegant Variation

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August 18, 2008

THINKING ABOUT ROTH II

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

August 18, 2008

THINKING ABOUT ROTH II

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism