Book Reviewed
By Darold Morgan, Richardson, TX
Everyman
By Phillip Roth, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 2006, $24
It is quite rare for us in Christian Ethics Today to review a novel, but the theme Philip Roth pursues in this book has some strong ethical overtones which he deftly handles, particularly for those older adults whose health is shaky and unpredictable. Roth is recognized far and wise as one of American’s premier novelists. Roth usually inserts some profound and often subtle Jewish overtones in his writings. One of his recognized skills is in his powerful, and often unforgettable, character developments. The chief character in this short novel is no exception.
The unnamed man, referred to as “he” is aging very poorly. With three failed marriages behind him, he is moving into old age with some welldeserved and bitter memories stemming from his selfish misbehavior. Now he is faced with an inevitable sequence of medical travails, the anger of his sons still unresolved because of the shabby treatment of their mother, and the recurring memories of good parents whose return to an orthodox Judaism came too late in life to influence him. He exhibits the tragic emptiness of a spiritually-devoid finality. There is no redeeming light to be found in this sad, well-told tale.
The title Everyman, borrowed from medieval times, hints that some of the issues in this novel comes to all who age. That all of us will sooner or later confront death is a given. In this we discover the underlying motif of the book. Prefaced by a long list of medical and personal crises, “he” is aging awkwardly because of peculiar selfcenteredness. Some of the finest pages in this brief novel are found in his descriptions of the relationship with a hero-like brother and his unexpected confrontation with a wise grave-digger in the old, run-down Jewish cemetery where his parents were buried with the Old-World Orthodox rites. His abstract indifferences toward this final challenge of life somehow moves toward a concrete reality through the shared wisdom that emerges in that fascinating exchange.
It is apparent that Roth, now seventy-three, is increasingly aware of death. His novel, though intriguing, is strangely depressing because there are no emerging solutions. Here children are far from being sensitive to the mood swings of an aging parent. There is nothing about the old adage of reaping what you have sown, particularly as it relates to the moral and spiritual themes of old age. The missing note is the total lack of spiritual certainty. “He” has none of this, and the closing paragraphs are totally bereft of encouragement. With Roth’s writings in mind, one never expects any religious certitude, save for a few hints from that really amazing reservoir of Eastern European Judaism that he knows so well. Even that is missing as the novel bluntly ends in the hospital’s operating room.
