Thoughts on: The Human Stain by Philip Roth

This morning as I slowly came to life, I finished reading "The Human Stain" by prolific American writer Philip Roth.

I've never read anything by Roth before, but I must say that reading this book was a wholly delightful experience.  Every word, scene and character is hand crafted in such a way that you are pulled into the far-reaching narrative as soon as the light turns green.  The result is a multi-faceted, sharp and profound plot that focuses on a cast of players that are as real and human as a next-door neighbour. 

The story begins with Coleman Silk, the Dean of Athena University.  His life has slowly been falling apart.  First, he is forced to resign from teaching under suspicion of racism.  During roll call of one of his classes, he comes across the same two students who never attend the class.  So he calls out "Does anyone know these people?  Do they exist or are they spooks?".  It turns out the two students whom were always absent were African Americans, and when they heard the comment, took it to be an archaic racial slur and mounted an offensive against him.  Slowly he is pushed from the university, the tides change, his wife dies from a stroke and all that rage and loneliness wells up inside of Coleman Silk.  He begins writing a book called Spooks, in the belief that it will prove that the university killed his wife.

In comes our narrator, Nathan Zuckerman.  He is a neighbour of Coleman who comes into his life abruptly one day, raving about the book, the murder of his wife and asking Zuckerman to help him with the writing.  Slowly Zuckerman befriends Coleman and in so doing discovers both the great person and the great secrets that have surrounded his life.  What ensues is a historical, lively and character-focused account of not only Silk's life, but those that came in contact with him by blood or bond.

Coleman is a compelling character, as is Zuckerman but Roth does not stop there.  Whether you are reading about Les Farley (PTSD afflicted Vietnam War Veteran, angry, failed dairy farmer and incredibly courageous and self-searching) or Delphine Roux (Parisian born, beautiful, petite and highly intellectual Athena professor who both hates and strangely loves Coleman Silk despite her better judgement), Roth brings each sliver of each person to life through his unique writing style.  You aren't just reading an overarching narrative when you read this book.  You slip into their minds, from character to character, until each slice of life, each painstakingly simple scene has fully come to realization. 

I loved it, beginning to end.  That being said, it was DENSE and took me a long time.  Never once did I feel that I was slogging, instead, I felt as if I was savouring.  On the addition of the book that I read, the front cover has a quote that reads "In American literature today, there's Philip Roth, and then there's everybody else" - Chicago Tribune.  Huge words, and I'm not well read enough to in any way ratify the statement.  However, it was an awesome (in the actual sense of the word) piece of literature, and one that will continue to develop in my mind for years to come.