About this title: Philip Roth's perennial character (first introduced in THE BREAST, then appearing in THE PROFESSOR OF DESIRE) David Kepesh is the narrator of THE DYING ANIMAL, which finds an aging Kepesh still obsessed with sex, still longing for young women to keep death at bay. He thinks compulsively, in erotic detail, of an affair with a Cuban student named Consuela--and, at the end of the book, after Kepesh has had to confront the death of a close friend and the estrangement of his son, Consuela reappears in his life. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780618135875ISBN:0618135871
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. 0618135871 ex-library book in great condition, inside pages and binding are very good, no markings-just the library stamp and pocket, ** Satisfaction Guaranteed ** Orders ship same or next business day. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780307454881ISBN:0307454886
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2002-07-09
ISBN-13:9780375714122ISBN:037571412X
Description: Very Good. Trade paperback. Light general wear, tape front cover outer edge repair. One owner mark / note inside page. Pages otherwise clean, tight, straight, unmarked. read more
Description: Fair in Fair jacket. 0618135871 This book has some shelf wear as well as marks on the cover and pages. The library stamps and stickers are still on this book. This book is 156 pages. read more
Description: Very Good. 0307454886 This Book is in Very Good Used Condition. The book shows a minimal amount of wear. A Great Book! 100% Money Back Guarantee! ! ! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2002-07-09
ISBN-13:9780375714122ISBN:037571412X
Description: New. Great book for a reasonable and competitive price. some doggy eared pages. Buy risk free and enjoy. I will ship promptly in a bubble wrap mailer. read more
Description: Very Good. 0099436892 Mass Market Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition but does have some curve to the spine / reading creases to the covers. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780099422693ISBN:0099422697
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S. A
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780375714122ISBN:037571412X
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 156 p.; VG; small erasure mark on ffep, small smudge on top of text block, otherwise clean, unmarked, uncreased spine, First Vintage International Edition, orig. pub. Houghton Mifflin 2001. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008-07-22
ISBN-13:9780307454881ISBN:0307454886
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780307454881. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 2002-07-01
ISBN-13:9780375714122ISBN:037571412X
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780375714122. read more
"Reading this book directly after reading The Professor of Desire was an exercise in frustration. Why does Roth change Kepesh's biography in such a way as to make it incompatible with the one given in Professor? That book ends sometime in the mid-to-late 60s, at which point Kepesh is in his mid-thirties, already divorced from his childless first marriage, and his mother has passed away. Yet in The Dying Animal Kepesh has a 42 year old son (since the book is set in early 2000, we can assume he was born in 1958) from his first and only marriage, and apparently both of his parents were alive long enough to help raise this child. I can understand Roth wanting to explore different possibilities in the two different books, but why not just use an entirely new narrator?"
"The Dying Animal might as well have been me reading this book. The story picks up with the interesting truths of human sexuality, little revelations about aging and confronting death, and yet the combination here of sex and death still manages to fall flat. A young Cuban love interest, a randy old professor: so much to be explored right? An interracial relationship that crosses age too. In theory this stuff should be compelling. Roth however doesn't manage to get past discussing ass-shapes and blatant Freudian castration anxiety. It's like Humbert Humbert shat himself and tried to write a passionate novel about something he didn't really care about. At no point do the characters really connect, not even through their personal fears of sex and death or through their privileged backgrounds. If sex and death can't save your dying animal of a novel, nothing can. If you have to read something this dispassionate, pick up an outdated sexist textbook for free-ninety-nine and save yourself the pain and the eight euros I was stupid enough to spend."
"Which is the more disturbing passage in the novel:
A) When David Kepesh licks the menstrual blood from Consuela's leg.
B) When Consuela comes to David so he can feel the cancer on her breast.
Gotta love Phil Roth!!!
But of course the big question is who is Kepesh talking to at the end of the novel...well actually who is he telling the story to throughout the whole novel. He hints at it at the beginning when he refers to this person sitting on the end of the sofa. But it seems like a Roth device for speaking to the reader. (It's not.) At the end of the novel this mystery guest finally speaks up. And you're left wondering who it is. Is it another Kepesh lover? Obviously that's what you're supposed to gather from this. How does this affect your reading of the rest of the novel? Is it meant to take away any sympathy that you've garnered for Kepesh throughout the novel? I mean, it's hard to maintain any sympathy for someone so narcissitic, but the final 40 pages or so does put him in a slightly better life. But here he is waiting to hear from the dying love of his life, in the company of yet another trampy conquest. That's the point right?
Okay, there are other "points" here. About the sexual revolution, about its implications for modern society...yeah, I get all that. And it is worth thinking about on some level. Roth is doing more than just writing about sex here. Though Roth always does that better than almost anybody else."
"The story of a professor who has a knack for falling for his students. He speaks to a listener throughout the novel about a recent affair - and the only woman he really seems to have fallen for. He's in his sixties, she's in her twenties. He's obsessed with everything physical about her, and goes through some interesting descriptions of everything from her breasts to her vagina. And it goes on.
There was a specific part of the book that I enjoyed more than the rest, because it seemed to focus more on a personal issue his "girlfriend" is going through, than about the nasty things he'd like to do to her. I guess I just didn't get it..."
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