Letting Go (1962)

Letting Go is too much. Too much breadth, too much length, too much existentialism, and too much nihilism. There’s too much going on in the plot that isn’t fully sorted out by the end; and, most notably, there’s too much neurotic behavior on the part of too many of the characters. In this novel there are passages in which the dialogue is so preposterous that it simply drives the reader nuts. Come on, really now, how many times do minor characters need to be told to get the heck out of a room? Five times? Six times? Seven times? When is enough enough? And how many times do lovers need to quarrel about the same issue over and over and subsequently claim they’re sorry for having done so, yet immediately start in with the brawls again, browbeating the identical issue to pieces over and over still more? Just who is Roth trying to caricaturize here, anyway? I mean, are there people who actually live like that? Fight like that? Make constant noise like that? (No wonder I’m single and insist on quiet!) And while we’re at it, how many sharp left turns could there be in the last quarter of a novel which is way too long for its own good? And what about the drop-off over a cliff that is the book’s bizarre conclusion? I had to read the last two or three pages twice to understand what the heck just happened.

Look, Roth is an awesome writer. You can’t get much funnier or more satirical than Portnoy’s Complaint, for instance. (There’s a five-star novel if there ever was one.) With some much-needed pruning and some toned-down dialogue, Letting Go could have been much better. The potential was there. But with this book, he tried to take on too much, so it winds up being a middle-of-the-road affair at best. ( )

סיפור ארוך ומסובך שאני לא זוכר ממנו הרבה​ ( )

So far as I can see I am the only one who thinks that this is the best book by Roth. I read it at least four times and I will read it ar least four times more. ( )

You can sure tell this was early Roth. ( )

So, this is the 23rd Philip Roth book that I have read, though it is his first novel. I have found that first novels are often radically different from the rest of an author's work, though in this case I wouldn't say that it was all that different from some of Roth's other novels. One obvious thing that sets "Letting Go" apart is it's length; it is much longer than his other books. I haven't actually compared page numbers, but even if it weren't actually longer it (though it was) it would still seem longer. There also seemed to be a lot of name dropping going on - several references to Proust, Henry James, and others: Proust is fast becoming one of my favorite authors (though my prose sadly does not reflect that) and I am going to give James another chance. I think the author referencing may be a way to add legitimacy or to show off, but that is forgivable certainly.

I can't give the book a negative review - though I did find it to be tedious. I didn't really like any of the characters, though that doesn't really matter all that much. It did seem that the reader had to endure the same scenes repeatedly: Paul and Libby arguing over the same thing repeatedly, Gabe and Martha arguing over the same thing repeatedly, Gabe and Bigoness arguing over the same thing repeatedly, etc. I suppose the repetition drills in the fact that people often repeat themselves and do not often change or give in. I especially found the scenes with Bigoness to be difficult to get through; the character himself was annoying, and the confrontation with Gabe was frustrating.

A lot of the territory staked out in this novel Roth explores again (and again) later on, and I enjoyed those books a great deal more. I generally prefer Roth's work more from the mid-70's onward. If I were ranking, I'd say that this is probably my 3rd or 4th least favorite Roth book (1st has to be "The Great American Novel" and 2nd has to be "Our Gang").

Still though, it was an interesting book, and there is a lot of good stuff in it. In reply to arthurfrayn, the other reviewer of "Letting Go" here, I agree with you on all points. The characters all ring true more or less ; though there are things that today seem rather racist, sexist, and classist, I don't really fault Roth for them. I think this is a very good book - maybe as good or better than "Portnoy's Complaint," but not as good as most of his other work. ( )