Book Review: "Nemesis", by Philip Roth

[clovenbuttercup]

Nemesis by Philip Roth

This started off well, and the writing was very descriptive; the tension and fear surrounding the Newark polio epidemic was atmospheric and drew me in.  The narrator turns out to be one of the children in the playground supervised by the protagonist, which is strange to say the least of it because you'd have to wonder where they're getting the detailed information from as the protagonist isn't likely to be forthcoming about much of it.

The summer camp section bothers me, mostly because of the depiction of the "Indian night" including stuff like blackface and wearing of a chief's feathers by someone with no right to them; I get that the book is set in 1944 and thus depicts the acts and attitudes of that time, but no-one says I have to like it.

The protagonist becomes increasingly self-critical and when a child at the camp falls ill with polio he starts believing that he is the common factor, the Typhoid Mary.  This attitude isn't helped by the fact he too contracts polio.  At the end of the book we come full-circle as the narrator meets the protagonist in circa 1969 and we discover that the latter has spent the past twenty-five years beating himself up over the "fact" he was the one who brought polio from inner-city Newark to the summer camp.  We also learn that after he contracted the disease, the protagonist chose to break up with his then fiancée against her wishes, and has spent the intervening period unable to stop thinking of her (a possible sign he regrets his actions?)

In general, though, the protagonist seems to have become an emotionally stunted man, and we are left to assume he will continue in that manner until his death.  The Nemesis of the title is (according to Wikipedia) the goddess of ancient Greek religion who enacted retribution against those who succumb to hubris, so perhaps it works well as comment on the protagonist?  I've read Philip Roth previously, The Plot Against America, and I didn't much care for it; I feel much the same about Nemesis, now that I've read it, and I wonder if it's the author's style I dislike.  I probably won't read another Roth novel, and I'm not sure I can recommend this to anyone.