About this title: The bestselling author of "The Plot Against America" now turns his attention to one man's lifelong confrontation with mortality. From his first glimpse of death during his childhood through his vigorous, seemingly invincible prime, Roth's hero is a man bewildered not only by his own decline but by the unimaginable deaths of his contemporaries and ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780307277718ISBN:0307277712
Description: Very Good. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Description: Very Good. 061873516X *HCDJ * SHIPPING WITHIN 24 HOURS! ** QUESTIONS ANSWERED QUICKLY ** THANKS ** HARDCOVER BOOK WITH DUST JACKET. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: First Edition. date on title page
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date Published: 2006-04
ISBN-13:9780618735167ISBN:061873516X
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
"Everyman takes its title from an anonymous 15th century allegorical drama whose theme is the summoning of the living to death.
This book is a reflection on attitude toward aging and death. At one point the protagonist posits, "Old age is not a battle. It is a massacre." This is not a book to read when melancholy! It's possible to read its 182 pages in one sitting, but preferable to read it slowly because it's a worthy read that leaves you thinking.
The protagonist is a universal figure, a nameless 71 year old man, whose story begins at his funeral. A retrospective of his life ensues, and while it is not sentimental, it is compassionate. It's a lifetime of days of ups and downs, happiness and sadness, losses and longing, wanting and regret, and finally death.
There's a noteworthy interaction with a compassionate grave digger. We never learn his name either, but we learn that he is a kind, good man who digs each grave by hand with great care, perfection, precision, and respect. The recipients of his labor are provided a perfectly dug grave. The message is clear that we will all become recipients of the same.
Everyman is well told and has impact without being overwhelming. Roth's writing is deft, well crafted, and every word has meaning."
"Roth's everyman rejects religion yet his observation of nothingness, oblivion, death, is filled with a solemn awe as well as dread. His everyman is gone, but remains as memory in those who survive him. His liturgical enumeration of medical procedures as his body deteriorates parallels the procedure of prayer, and offers solace in iteration even as society's treatment of illness turns shabby and impersonal. His insistence on acknowledging the plain ordinariness of life-"he had done what he did the way that he did it"-and its ridiculous imperfection (especially found in lust) nears transcendence. In an interview, Roth pays homage to the medieval morality play from which he drew his title: "Everyman's answer is the first great line in English drama: 'Oh, Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind.' When I thought of you least." Roth realizes he, too, is inadequate to the task of coming to terms with death. "I have no taste for delusion," he has said. All he can do is recognize its immensity in deep and beautiful language in this dark little meditation."
"You can finish this book in under two hours. You will anxiously burn through the pages waiting for something meaningful to happen. It never will.
That's kind of, I think, the point.
Even so it will break your heart and you will not be able to sleep all night and you will call your grandma and tell her you love her and you will spend the next week slow-breathing yourself out of an ever-on-the-verge-of-overwhelming-your-sensibilities panic attack.
At this point you may wish you'd never read it. You probably still should."
"For its first half, "Everyman" reads a bit like a condensed version of an earlier Philip Roth novel, something that could be titled "The Anatomy Lesson: Only the Medical Parts." "Everyman"'s initial focus on its protagonist's health problems, almost to the exclusion of everything else, recalls the earlier book's concentration on Nathan Zuckerman's illness.
"The Anatomy Lesson," however, had a much wider scope than "Everyman" initially seems to. About two-thirds the way in, though, "Everyman" becomes more of a typical Roth novel. The story isn't told chronologically, and Roth eventually finds his way back to his protagonist's sexual adventures earlier in life. This is Roth, after all, so there is a lot of sex, and it's inevitably with attractive, young women who throw themselves at our hero.
"Everyman" does depart from the Roth formula by giving his protagonist a happy, almost problem-free childhood, and a good relationship with his parents. It's in his relationships with his own children, particularly his sons, that the typical Rothian family strife kicks in. Roth gives little space over to these problems and speaks of them mostly in generalities though, so they lack the specificity of the conflicts in his earlier novels.
It's this lack of specificity that is "Everyman"'s biggest weakness. It's no secret what Roth is trying to do here -- he doesn't give his protagonist a name, and the "Everyman" of the title refers both to the name of the jewelry shop owned by our hero's father, and to our hero himself -- but that doesn't mean the tactic works particularly well or was needed. The device ends up calling a lot of attention to itself, while adding little to the novel's story or its messages."
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