The Dying Animal Book

I wish I could say that it is just as entertaining reading the puritan backlash Roth engenders among a large number of Goodreads' reviewers as it is to read Roth himself. But, alas, I cannot say that.

So, all right, this is not the masterpiece that, say, "Portnoy's Complaint" is, but I also can't deny that Roth speaks to me on every page. And that's because the man refuses to lie about human sexuality and motivation. What he says makes a lot of people uncomfortable. In many quarters that's a prerequisite of art.

And it's funny that reactions to him that claim to stem from positions of enlightenment (eg., offended feminist sensibilities) strike me as coming from merely a mutated form of Victorianism. Roth addresses that very American tendency in this book; he might as well have been quoting from Hofstadter's "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life."

So, yeah, on the surface this is about a professor who "abuses" his position of "glamor" and power to seduce students, or at least ones who've just graduated, his classes being part of the leading-up-to process of the conquest. But in this framework much is examined about aging and longing and the choices, good or bad or both, that people make in how they choose to live. There's much discussed about the mixed legacy of the sexual revolution of the '60s. The conflict between the "bad" father and the "noble" son, the latter overcompensating for the injustices of neglect he felt, is well examined, also.

The fact of the matter is, I visited a professor yesterday on the campus where I work to gather information for a music article I am writing. He's in his 40s and has a well-known reputation on campus for plucking his plums among the student body. He does the very same thing that Roth's protagonist in this book does. He even introduced me to his latest "assistant," a smoking hot young blonde ex-student whose knowing smiles to him during our interview spoke volumes.

So this shit happens, folks. So yeah, shoot the fucking messenger.

Readers need to stop personalizing so much when authors allow their characters to speak or act. I mean is the writing fabulous? Are the points well stated and thoughtful? Is there good basis in history and philosophy for what he talks about? YES, YES and YES!

And Roth's characters get to be promiscuous and fuck, and you don't. Don't get so frustrated and take it out on him.

I've just surpassed the halfway point, and Roth just fucking rocks, if you want to cut to the chase.

Just finished. Roth says so much about life and death. There's a scene close to the end, the passing of his best friend. All I can say is, I've never read a more intimate and moving depiction of a person's last hours. And it's not drawn out. He says just what needs to be said. And then there's more, but, don't want to spoil it.

The Dying Animal, the slow death of the body. Mortality. Who could have anything new to say? Does Roth say anything new? Maybe not, but it's all in HOW it's said.

I had to give this five stars. Roth just leaves me so full, so satisfied. I can't rate it any less.