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The Counterlife is about people enacting their dreams of renewal and escape, some of them going so far as to risk their lives to alter seemingly irreversible destinies. Wherever they may find themselves, the characters of The Counterlife are tempted unceasingly by the prospect of an alternative existence that can reverse their fate. Illuminating these lives in transition and guiding us through the book's evocative landscapes, familiar and foreign, is the miind of the novelist Nathan show more Zuckerman. His is the skeptical, enveloping intelligence that calculates the price that's paid in the struggle to change personal fortune and reshape history, whether in a dentist's office in suburban New Jersey, or in a tradition-bound English Village in Gloucestershire, or in a church in London's West End, or in a tiny desert settlement in Israel's occupied West Bank. show lessTags
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The last Roth book I read was "Sabbath’s Theater" so, starting this one I thought “Oh this is another sex book”, but bang! Things changed direction by chapter 2. This is about identity: personal, sexual, religious, and national. It’s structured essentially as a Cain and Abel meta fiction. I would have given it 5 stars at about the half way mark, but it changed course, and I’m going to have to think about if for a bit -especially the last section. It is a fascinating novel though. I do like meta fiction and the notion of alternate narratives leading to a thematic but not necessarily linear resolution works for me fine. Roth is always very funny in unusual and memorable ways.
The second chapter "Judea" which is about the central show more protagonist going to Israel to visit his brother -gone miltant Zionist extremist, is compelling reading. show less
The second chapter "Judea" which is about the central show more protagonist going to Israel to visit his brother -gone miltant Zionist extremist, is compelling reading. show less
I should probably start out by saying that I think Philip Roth is a pretty terrific writer. When he's on his game, you'd be hard pressed to find a more fluid, more insightful, and more bitingly funny wordslinger anywhere in the bookstore. I'm not sure that "The Counterlife" represents his best work, though. Sure, a lot of what has justly made him famous is still present: the interrogation of Jewish identity, the power of narrative and reminiscence to shape personality, and beautiful, flowing sentences that seem to leap right from the author's brain to the reader's. Still, everything's got its limits, and too much of "The Counterlife" seems less like a novel than a series of lightly fictionalized personal essays. Characters seem to show more appear out of nowhere just to make their points, only to disappear. Various letters are transcribed in their improbably lengthy entirety. Ideas, experiences, the very stuff of life is endlessly mulled over and digested. And so on. By the time that a character offered an analysis of a book that is almost certainly "Portnoy's Complaint" at the funeral for Nathan Zuckerman, who is almost certainly Philip Roth, I just gave up. You could probably argue that novel-writing itself is a fairly self-indulgent activity, so, theoretically, a little self-analysis shouldn't ruffle my feathers. But, again, there are limits. Even if you're Philip Roth. Maybe "never include the full text of the eulogy that will be delivered at the funeral for your obviously autobiographical narrator" should be added to the master list of fiction's unbreakable rules, to be given to first-year creative writing students along with gems like "never end a short story by having your main character commit suicide." Rules to live by, people.
Still, Roth's a writer of such talent that he can be interesting even when he's unsuccessful. The second section of "The Counterlife," in which the unassuming dentist brother of authorial stand-in Nathan Zuckerman survives a major heart operation, becomes depressed, and decamps to Israel to join a far-right settler movement, is worth the reader's time. In this iteration of the story, Roth's Jewish characters seem like the polar opposites of the inward, sensitive, contemplative, self-effacing characters one so often encounters in the author's fiction. These characters' Jewish identity is, as per Jung, wholly externalized as a fierce, intractable territoriality and their personal insecurities thrown out in the world as anger and violence. In a sense, it's an interesting companion piece to "The Plot Against America," a sort of mirror image of Roth's fiction in which the Jewish cultural assimilation that has informed so much of Roth's fiction never took place. It's not pretty, but it might be called another important facet of Roth's ever-evolving conception of the Jewish personality. As for the rest of "The Counterlife," well, I just didn't have the patience. show less
Still, Roth's a writer of such talent that he can be interesting even when he's unsuccessful. The second section of "The Counterlife," in which the unassuming dentist brother of authorial stand-in Nathan Zuckerman survives a major heart operation, becomes depressed, and decamps to Israel to join a far-right settler movement, is worth the reader's time. In this iteration of the story, Roth's Jewish characters seem like the polar opposites of the inward, sensitive, contemplative, self-effacing characters one so often encounters in the author's fiction. These characters' Jewish identity is, as per Jung, wholly externalized as a fierce, intractable territoriality and their personal insecurities thrown out in the world as anger and violence. In a sense, it's an interesting companion piece to "The Plot Against America," a sort of mirror image of Roth's fiction in which the Jewish cultural assimilation that has informed so much of Roth's fiction never took place. It's not pretty, but it might be called another important facet of Roth's ever-evolving conception of the Jewish personality. As for the rest of "The Counterlife," well, I just didn't have the patience. show less
Sono a metà ma non credo cambi registro.
Uno dei migliori Zuckerman, a mia memoria.
Poi, a prescindere da Nathan, credo che in ogni libro di Roth - sopratutto se appartengono al periodo incantato degli anni 80, dove si situa questo - non si possa fare altro che imparare.
L'equilibrio dei dialoghi, la piattaforma perfetta della traduzione, l'intelligenza che ogni fottuta frase butta fuori e mi annichilisce per la mia incompetenza, ogni 'petit morceau': tutto mi butta in avanti rispetto al minuto prima. Finisco un libro di Roth e mi sento meglio, so che ho ascoltato dialoghi dei quali vorrei essere l'interprete, di una vita che tutto sommato un pochetto invidio.
Questi jewish che parlano dei cazzi loro, che analizzano freudianamente ogni show more sincope del loro malessere sono spettacolari. Vale la pena di farsi un giorno di ferie e stare qualche ora sul divano in compagnia di questi spostati.
Ad ogni modo, la letteratura di questi ultimi anni. Con l'articolo determinativo.
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Poi si entra nel gioco degli specchi della meta-letteratura, e nello stesso tempo ho visto pure Inception che, seppur su piani diversi, mi riporta a questo libro. show less
Uno dei migliori Zuckerman, a mia memoria.
Poi, a prescindere da Nathan, credo che in ogni libro di Roth - sopratutto se appartengono al periodo incantato degli anni 80, dove si situa questo - non si possa fare altro che imparare.
L'equilibrio dei dialoghi, la piattaforma perfetta della traduzione, l'intelligenza che ogni fottuta frase butta fuori e mi annichilisce per la mia incompetenza, ogni 'petit morceau': tutto mi butta in avanti rispetto al minuto prima. Finisco un libro di Roth e mi sento meglio, so che ho ascoltato dialoghi dei quali vorrei essere l'interprete, di una vita che tutto sommato un pochetto invidio.
Questi jewish che parlano dei cazzi loro, che analizzano freudianamente ogni show more sincope del loro malessere sono spettacolari. Vale la pena di farsi un giorno di ferie e stare qualche ora sul divano in compagnia di questi spostati.
Ad ogni modo, la letteratura di questi ultimi anni. Con l'articolo determinativo.
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Poi si entra nel gioco degli specchi della meta-letteratura, e nello stesso tempo ho visto pure Inception che, seppur su piani diversi, mi riporta a questo libro. show less
This is Roth at his absolute best, blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction, while explicitly showing the reader the craft of writing and the choices the author makes. Here, the narrative doesn't follow an entirely linear format; instead it continually resets and passes certain events between characters. Who has the affair, who gets cancer, how might it change the family if a twist of fate turned the other way? Truly one of the best books I've ever read. It's so good that I feel like I should go back through my book ratings and drop the other 5 star books down to 4.
My only previous experience of reading Roth was [b:The Plot Against America|703|The Plot Against America|Philip Roth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553896240l/703._SY75_.jpg|911456], which I read shortly after it came out in paperback. I enjoyed that book but wasn't left feeling that I had to read more. There has been a discussion on Roth over the last few months in the Mookse group, and this book was the one most people there were interested in exploring.
I can't really discuss this book without spoilers - not that spoilers mean that book in the context of a narrative with so many alternative realities, but I will use spoiler tags just in case:
This is a very clever but rather contrived piece of storytelling. Rather than using a traditional sequential narrative, Roth chose to write this book in five sections, all of which tell alternative versions of the stories of his central character, the novelist Nathan Zuckerman and his younger brother Henry, and both are killed off and are then alive again in the next chapter. Other characters share names - for example all of the main non-Jewish women are called Maria.
The first part Basel is told by an omniscient third person, focusing on dentist Henry, whose heart medicines have left him impotent at 39 and unable to fulfil his part in an affair with his secretary, culminating in a decision to embark on a risky bypass operation that kills him.
Then in the next part Judea, the operation has turned out differently, and Henry has left his family to join a radical settler community on the West Bank, and Nathan goes to visit him, allowing him to explore the full spectrum of Jewish stereotypes and caricatures, a story that could only be told by a Jewish writer.
The third part, Aloft, which doesn't directly contradict its predecessor, sees Nathan on a plane back from Israel and drawn into an attempted hijacking.
The fourth part Gloucestershire is perhaps the cleverest, but to some may seem a little too contrived. This time it is Nathan who is afflicted with impotence as he becomes involved with another Maria, an unhappily married young English woman who lives in another flat in his New York brownstone. Nathan wants to go ahead with the bypass operation, and Maria tries to stop him. Partway through this chapter the narration switches to Henry as he describes Nathan's funeral and a subsequent visit to Nathan's flat, where he discovers and describes a manuscript that matches the book it is part of. Maria also gets a section in which she describes her reaction to reading the final part.
The final part Christendom sees Nathan alive again and living with a pregnant Maria and her daughter in England, where their happiness is thwarted by Nathan's reaction to a series of encounters with antisemitism, both overt and disguised.
Roth's ability to speak from so many contrary perspectives is impressive, and the book is both challenging and thought provoking, if not always a comfortable read. Probably a much better introduction to Roth than The Plot Against America, but I am still not convinced that I want to read more. show less
I can't really discuss this book without spoilers - not that spoilers mean that book in the context of a narrative with so many alternative realities, but I will use spoiler tags just in case:
This is a very clever but rather contrived piece of
The first part Basel is told by an omniscient third person, focusing on dentist Henry, whose heart medicines have left him impotent at 39 and unable to fulfil his part in an affair with his secretary, culminating in a decision to embark on a risky bypass operation that kills him.
Then in the next part Judea, the operation has turned out differently, and Henry has left his family to join a radical settler community on the West Bank, and Nathan goes to visit him, allowing him to explore the full spectrum of Jewish stereotypes and caricatures, a story that could only be told by a Jewish writer.
The third part, Aloft, which doesn't directly contradict its predecessor, sees Nathan on a plane back from Israel and drawn into an attempted hijacking.
The fourth part Gloucestershire is perhaps the cleverest, but to some may seem a little too contrived. This time it is Nathan who is afflicted with impotence as he becomes involved with another Maria, an unhappily married young English woman who lives in another flat in his New York brownstone. Nathan wants to go ahead with the bypass operation, and Maria tries to stop him. Partway through this chapter the narration switches to Henry as he describes Nathan's funeral and a subsequent visit to Nathan's flat, where he discovers and describes a manuscript that matches the book it is part of. Maria also gets a section in which she describes her reaction to reading the final part.
The final part Christendom sees Nathan alive again and living with a pregnant Maria and her daughter in England, where their happiness is thwarted by Nathan's reaction to a series of encounters with antisemitism, both overt and disguised.
Roth's ability to speak from so many contrary perspectives is impressive, and the book is both challenging and thought provoking, if not always a comfortable read. Probably a much better introduction to Roth than The Plot Against America, but I am still not convinced that I want to read more. show less
An author's anti-Jewish antics come full circle when he feels discriminated against for being Jewish. If Roth embellished on such a plot, I'd have been satisfied. But he instead dwells on a few alternative histories revolving around men suffering mid-life crises. Specifically, how brothers view each other when they undergo operations to recover their masculinity. There's no room for love in The Counterlife, jam-packed as it is with vitriol. Against Jews or gentiles, West or East, partners or society. All expressed in eloquent and elongated monologues.
I was looking for something more like Roth's more sensitive novels, the likes of Indignation, Human Stain and Nemesis. I marched on hoping for a denouement which strikes a chord. It never came.
I was looking for something more like Roth's more sensitive novels, the likes of Indignation, Human Stain and Nemesis. I marched on hoping for a denouement which strikes a chord. It never came.
I liked this Roth Novel a great deal. It is a clever twist on the autobiographical novel. The protagonist (really Roth himself) is accused of twisting the facts about the lives of his family and friends in order to write his stories. But here he shows us how he really mixes up fact and fiction to create characters that are really entirely new. In this novel he even kills himself off to make the point that no ones life is sacred in fiction.
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Author Information
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Philip Milton Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey on March 19, 1933. He attended Rutgers University for one year before transferring to Bucknell University where he completed a B.A. in English with highest honors in 1954. He received an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1955. His first book, Goodbye, Columbus, received the National Book Award show more in 1960. His other books include Letting Go, When She Was Good, Portnoy's Complaint, My Life as a Man, The Ghostwriter, Zuckerman Unbound, I Married a Communist, The Plot Against America, The Facts, The Anatomy Lesson, Exit Ghost, Deception, Nemesis, Everyman, Indignation, and The Humbling. He won the National Book Critic Circle Awards in 1987 for his novel The Counterlife and in 1992 for his memoir Patrimony: A True Story. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1993 for Operation Shylock: A Confession and in 2001 for The Human Stain, the National Book Award in 1995 for Sabbath's Theater, and the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for American Pastoral. He stopped writing in 2010. He died from congestive heart failure on May 22, 2018 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Debolsillo Contemporánea (380/9)
rororo (23895)
Gallimard, Folio (4382)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Het contraleven
- Original title
- The Counterlife
- Alternate titles*
- Het contraleven : roman
- Original publication date
- 1986
- People/Characters
- Nathan Zuckerman; Henry Zuckerman
- Dedication
- To my father at eighty-five
- First words
- Ever since the family doctor, during a routine check-up, discovered an abnormality on his EKG and he went in overnight for the coronary catheterization that revealed the dimensions of the disease, Henry's condition had bee... (show all)n successfully treated with drugs, enabling him to work and to carry on his life at home exactly as before.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It may be as you say that this is no life, but use your enchanting, enrapturing brains: this life is as close to life as you, and I, and our child can ever hope to come.
- Publisher's editor*
- DeBolsillo
- Blurbers
- John Updike; Susan Cheever; The Wall Street Journal; Paul Gray; William Gass
- Original language
- English US
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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