Patrimony: A True Story

Roth gets to the heart of that moment when the child becomes the parent, with a grace, humor, insight, and unvarnished ugly truth that would surprise me coming from most anyone other than this author. In his fiction, Roth mastered the art, or maybe science, of showing the reader the humanity and depth in complicated, difficult men. It should not be surprising that he honors his father's memory by doing the same for him. Roth's father was a whole lot like my father. It was unsettling to read passages that seemed to have been recorded from my own interactions. It is easy to whitewash the truth of people after their passing. We might see it as an act of love to do so, but it is really not. It is a coping mechanism for those left behind, show more and a way to avoid difficult conversations. It is also easy to further demonize those people, to forget what is good about them. There is nothing wrong with either of those things. I have done both. But the brave option, the best option, is to remember the real, the coarse, the mean, the ungenerous as well as the loving, the generous, the wise, and to honor that imperfect person who mattered to many people and in many ways, even if briefly or negatively. Roth has done that, and that is a small miracle.

One note: This was a reread for me (or a listen, actually, I read it the first time but this time I went with the audiobook, read brilliantly by Malcolm Hillgartner). The first time I read this, my difficult father was very much alive, and I thought it was a very good memoir, but it did not resonate the way it did this time, a week before the 21st anniversary of the death of my very complicated dad. show less

Philip Roth delivers a touching tribute to his father. With eloquence, humor and the utmost respect he shares his father's illness leading up to his final days. Herman Roth wakes up one morning to a strange paralysis, drooping eyelid, slack cheek and slurred speech, on one side of his face. Thinking he has had a stroke Philip takes his father to see a doctor. The news is worse. Herman has a brain tumor at the base of his skull that has been growing for ten years. What follows is a journey of father and son, navigating medical treatments and traversing the rough road of relationships. The result is a touching memoir of discovery for both father and son. If you have never read anything by Roth, read this.

Patrimony is about author Philip Roth dealing with his father's debilitating and rapidly growing brain tumor. It takes away his autonomy and eventually his life. Patrimony depicts about a three year period in the late 1980's at the first onset of the tumor, which was originally misdiagnosed as Bell's Palsy, that gave his father, Hermann, partial facial paralysis to splitting headaches and loss of equilibrium.

Patrimony has what I have always called the "Titanic Effect." I'm sure it actually has a proper name but I have never looked for it. The Titanic Effect is that the person is aware of the tragic event but getting there is still so heartbreaking even though you knew it was already going to happened.

I knew Hermann Roth was going to show more die. I knew how he was going to die. But it is so sad to read about. I felt badly for Philip because it was incredibly difficult to reconcile with the fact that this strong, obstinate, hard working man had become so frail and was not going to live much longer. It must have been hard for Hermann to feel the deterioration of his body; that he couldn't do the same things that he once did. Slowly, his independence was slipping from him.

I felt almost compelled to read this book as rapidly as I did because I'm in a parallel situation with my Grandmother. I'm thinking the way the novelist felt is how my mother must be starting to feel. It's startling to see that someone who was once so strong is now so weak. If my mother was any kind of reader, I would give her this one.

This was my first Roth book. What made me buy it was that when I read the New York Times article announcing his retirement, Patrimony and a brief synopsis was mentioned. It sounded interesting. Patrimony was a very realistic and visceral account of celebrating a life and realizing you'll have to let it go. show less

Patrimony is about author Philip Roth dealing with his father's debilitating and rapidly growing brain tumor. It takes away his autonomy and eventually his life. Patrimony depicts about a three year period in the late 1980's at the first onset of the tumor, which was originally misdiagnosed as Bell's Palsy, that gave his father, Hermann, partial facial paralysis to splitting headaches and loss of equilibrium.

Patrimony has what I have always called the "Titanic Effect." I'm sure it actually has a proper name but I have never looked for it. The Titanic Effect is that the person is aware of the tragic event but getting there is still so heartbreaking even though you knew it was already going to happened.

I knew Hermann Roth was going to show more die. I knew how he was going to die. But it is so sad to read about. I felt badly for Philip because it was incredibly difficult to reconcile with the fact that this strong, obstinate, hard working man had become so frail and was not going to live much longer. It must have been hard for Hermann to feel the deterioration of his body; that he couldn't do the same things that he once did. Slowly, his independence was slipping from him.

I felt almost compelled to read this book as rapidly as I did because I'm in a parallel situation with my Grandmother. I'm thinking the way the novelist felt is how my mother must be starting to feel. It's startling to see that someone who was once so strong is now so weak. If my mother was any kind of reader, I would give her this one.

This was my first Roth book. What made me buy it was that when I read the New York Times article announcing his retirement, Patrimony and a brief synopsis was mentioned. It sounded interesting. Patrimony was a very realistic and visceral account of celebrating a life and realizing you'll have to let it go. show less

Patrimony is about author Philip Roth dealing with his father's debilitating and rapidly growing brain tumor. It takes away his autonomy and eventually his life. Patrimony depicts about a three year period in the late 1980's at the first onset of the tumor, which was originally misdiagnosed as Bell's Palsy, that gave his father, Hermann, partial facial paralysis to splitting headaches and loss of equilibrium.

Patrimony has what I have always called the "Titanic Effect." I'm sure it actually has a proper name but I have never looked for it. The Titanic Effect is that the person is aware of the tragic event but getting there is still so heartbreaking even though you knew it was already going to happened.

I knew Hermann Roth was going to show more die. I knew how he was going to die. But it is so sad to read about. I felt badly for Philip because it was incredibly difficult to reconcile with the fact that this strong, obstinate, hard working man had become so frail and was not going to live much longer. It must have been hard for Hermann to feel the deterioration of his body; that he couldn't do the same things that he once did. Slowly, his independence was slipping from him.

I felt almost compelled to read this book as rapidly as I did because I'm in a parallel situation with my Grandmother. I'm thinking the way the novelist felt is how my mother must be starting to feel. It's startling to see that someone who was once so strong is now so weak. If my mother was any kind of reader, I would give her this one.

This was my first Roth book. What made me buy it was that when I read the New York Times article announcing his retirement, Patrimony and a brief synopsis was mentioned. It sounded interesting. Patrimony was a very realistic and visceral account of celebrating a life and realizing you'll have to let it go. show less

i kept finding myself wondering why this was written, and how straight white men are so sure their stories are important, so it would seem i came to this book biased against it and perhaps i therefore can't judge it accurately. i did find some passages surprising or well done or even a little funny, but also did continue to wonder what the point was in his making this public. especially some things that it would seem his father would have rather been kept in the family. sure it's a nice tribute to his father, and easy (sometimes even touching; often not, at least he's honest about some of his father's bad qualities) to read, but i don't know that it's more than that. it's not particularly well written and doesn't have that much to it. show more 2.5 stars might be a little high. show less

Audiobook. Very good book. Roth's story of his father's final years. Late 80s dying from a "benign" brain tumor. Also about making sense of one's parents, growing old as well. I finished this book on Tuesday night and woke Wednesday morning to the news of Ted Kennedy's death from a "malignant" brain tumor. Roth is such a good writer and this book is a labor of love. The final images of this book keep playing and replaying in my mind. Leaves me thinking about my own parents, about mortality, about a good end.