Hardcover, 199 pages
português language
Published 2821 by TAG.
Seu último romance em que volta a suas questões íntimas. O tema de Nêmesis é a epidemia de pólio que assolou os Estados Unidos durante o verão de 1941 e como afetou a comunidade judaica de Newark, a cidade natal do autor, cenário de sua infância. Roth retoma um velho tema, o da peste, tratado anteriormente por Daniel Defoe e Albert Camus. O pano de fundo, neste caso, é a II Guerra Mundial, com suas atrocidades. Na última obra, “Roth nos arrasta para o melhor de que é capaz, o teatro de sua imaginação, alcançando um virtuosismo de que só são capazes os mestres do invisível”, argumenta Eduardo Lago. Ao comentar o romance, o sul-africano J. M. Coetzee, ganhador do prêmio Nobel de Literatura, atenta para uma cena misteriosa em que se explica como cavar um túmulo. Trata-se de uma lição, observa Coetzee, tanto de vida como de morte. Escrever …
Seu último romance em que volta a suas questões íntimas. O tema de Nêmesis é a epidemia de pólio que assolou os Estados Unidos durante o verão de 1941 e como afetou a comunidade judaica de Newark, a cidade natal do autor, cenário de sua infância. Roth retoma um velho tema, o da peste, tratado anteriormente por Daniel Defoe e Albert Camus. O pano de fundo, neste caso, é a II Guerra Mundial, com suas atrocidades. Na última obra, “Roth nos arrasta para o melhor de que é capaz, o teatro de sua imaginação, alcançando um virtuosismo de que só são capazes os mestres do invisível”, argumenta Eduardo Lago. Ao comentar o romance, o sul-africano J. M. Coetzee, ganhador do prêmio Nobel de Literatura, atenta para uma cena misteriosa em que se explica como cavar um túmulo. Trata-se de uma lição, observa Coetzee, tanto de vida como de morte. Escrever é enfrentar a morte e aprender a tiver. Tudo ao mesmo tempo.
This best part about this book is that it was a fast read. There’s an unexpected turn in narration and voice. Doesn’t work.
Nemesis was één van de boeken die getipt werden om te lezen tijdens de coronapandemie in maart 2020. Na [b:De pest|50876556|De pest|Albert Camus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567800008l/50876556.SX50_SY75.jpg|2058116] en [b:De grote angst in de bergen|44159439|De grote angst in de bergen|Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551362798l/44159439.SY75.jpg|6169953] was ik wel even klaar met het onderwerp, maar ik ben blij dat ik het anderhalf jaar later alsnog gelezen heb.
Nemesis speelt zich af in een joodse gemeenschap in Newark tijdens de zomer van 1944. De 23-jarige Bucky Cantor is vanwege zijn slechte zicht afgekeurd voor de oorlog en moet tot zijn schande achterblijven. Om zich nuttig te maken zet hij zich als gymleraar verbeten in voor de toekomst van zijn leerlingen, die hem adoreren om zijn atletische vermogen en vastberadenheid. Ook zijn nieuwe roeping komt echter onder druk te staan, wanneer het poliovirus opduikt en de veiligheid van zijn leerlingen op het speelterrein niet langer gegarandeerd is. Roth …
Nemesis was één van de boeken die getipt werden om te lezen tijdens de coronapandemie in maart 2020. Na [b:De pest|50876556|De pest|Albert Camus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567800008l/50876556.SX50_SY75.jpg|2058116] en [b:De grote angst in de bergen|44159439|De grote angst in de bergen|Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551362798l/44159439.SY75.jpg|6169953] was ik wel even klaar met het onderwerp, maar ik ben blij dat ik het anderhalf jaar later alsnog gelezen heb.
Nemesis speelt zich af in een joodse gemeenschap in Newark tijdens de zomer van 1944. De 23-jarige Bucky Cantor is vanwege zijn slechte zicht afgekeurd voor de oorlog en moet tot zijn schande achterblijven. Om zich nuttig te maken zet hij zich als gymleraar verbeten in voor de toekomst van zijn leerlingen, die hem adoreren om zijn atletische vermogen en vastberadenheid. Ook zijn nieuwe roeping komt echter onder druk te staan, wanneer het poliovirus opduikt en de veiligheid van zijn leerlingen op het speelterrein niet langer gegarandeerd is. Roth schetst vervolgens een weergaloos beeld van de vertwijfelde Bucky, die stoeit met het dilemma dat zijn leven dreigt te veranderen.
Roth mag in zekere zin een heel Amerikaanse schrijver zijn, de manier waarop hij diepgang geeft aan zijn personages en in hun gedachten kruipt, maken zijn werk de moeite meer dan waard.
His conception of God was of an omnipotent being who was a union not of three persons in one God-head, as in Christianity, but of two – a sick fuck and an evil genius.
Such an interesting exercise to read in May/June 2020, in the midst of COVID19 and #BlackLivesMatter, having just finished [b:For The Love Of Men|43263540|For the Love of Men From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity|Liz Plank|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548887843l/43263540.SY75.jpg|67142358] and its assault on toxic masculinity, having spent the last two years consciously reading books by women of color and twenty years reading and thinking deeply about morality. I think the context detracted from my enjoyment of what might otherwise have been a book I'd enjoy.
I found the protagonist unsympathetic, and sharply increasingly so as the book progressed. The setting, unbearably whitemale and then, in Part 2, even depressingly so. The dialog stilted, characters flat. The writing was lovely, I'll admit: beautiful evocative sentences, but there just was no real author's voice until the very end, and then it's crammed into so little space that he comes off as sermonizing.
Maybe …
Such an interesting exercise to read in May/June 2020, in the midst of COVID19 and #BlackLivesMatter, having just finished [b:For The Love Of Men|43263540|For the Love of Men From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity|Liz Plank|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548887843l/43263540.SY75.jpg|67142358] and its assault on toxic masculinity, having spent the last two years consciously reading books by women of color and twenty years reading and thinking deeply about morality. I think the context detracted from my enjoyment of what might otherwise have been a book I'd enjoy.
I found the protagonist unsympathetic, and sharply increasingly so as the book progressed. The setting, unbearably whitemale and then, in Part 2, even depressingly so. The dialog stilted, characters flat. The writing was lovely, I'll admit: beautiful evocative sentences, but there just was no real author's voice until the very end, and then it's crammed into so little space that he comes off as sermonizing.
Maybe at twenty I would've found material to ponder. Where I am today, not so much. But I'm a crotchety old man, what do I know about great literature?
with this book, i'm starting to understand roth's narrative sense. here, he unwraps the narrator a chapter at a time.
