Nemesis [Hardcover]

One thing the prospective reader may want to know is that "Nemesis" is an old-fashioned novel. The book has the glow of a twilit, though painful, reminiscence. It is set in the Jewish Weequahic section of Newark during the war year of 1944. Roth imagines the community suffering through a devastating polio epidemic that cruelly maims and kills its youngest members. The protagonist is Bucky Cantor, a young man, a stalwart common man, whose decision whether to remain at or abandon his post as summer playground director will have fateful consequences.

Very early in his career Roth sent to Saul Bellow a draft of a short story he was trying to get published, asking for comments and advice. Bellow replied: "My reaction to your story was on the positive side of the scale, strongly. But mixed, too. I liked the straightness of it, the plainness." A half century later, Roth's new novel respects Bellow's preference. Direct, straight and plain, "Nemesis" unfolds in a manner you may not immediately associate with Roth. It is as if, having chosen to set his tale in the mid-twentieth century, Roth decided to set aside the signature style and quirks he's perfected in the last few decades, and, instead, hark back to the American literature of that earlier period, embracing its feel and direction. For me, that embrace is one of the pleasures of this short novel.

The straightforward narrative of "Nemesis," which follows the traditional path of exposition, rising action, conflict, and aftermath, eschews the inventive and experimental course Roth took in some ambitious novels of the 1980's and 1990's, notably "The Counterlife" and "Operation Shylock." The surprisingly plain voice of the new novel, narrated not by some maniacally garrulous Nathan Zuckerman type, but by an even-tempered, practical-minded witness (who later reveals himself to have been one of the Newark child polio survivors) imparts a classic balance to the proceedings. Also un-Roth-like is the absence of ethnic satire (the Jewish community is lovingly portrayed). Readers expecting to encounter Roth's comical eye for the worst in people, a celebration of joyous rebellion, a sexual adventurousness, will be disappointed. Also, though fulminating anger abounds (Bucky repeatedly shakes his fist at a God "who spends too much time killing children"), that energy may not be enough to change the final verdict of some readers who will find the book lackluster and timid.

In its style (simple and earnest) and in its themes, "Nemesis" reminds me of the classic mid-20th century American fiction that has long been a staple of high school English classes -- especially the books, stories and plays featuring common men, ordinary Joes, who meet tragic ends. "Nemesis" shares with Steinbeck's "The Pearl," Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," and Thornton Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," the theme of the vicissitudes of fate and the contingency of our existence. Roth shares with those authors and their social realist contemporaries -- the writers who commanded the stage when he was young -- an interest in the way the world at large shapes our private lives, and how accidental forces shape individual destiny. If you still have a fondness for those books -- maybe because they were the vehicles through which you first learned to read intensely and interpret critically -- then you are bound to like "Nemesis."

"Nemesis" is unafraid to tackle the moral dimensions of our actions and lives. By book's end we have come to realize all of us are carriers of disease -- "bringers of crippling and death" -- if not in a literal sense then in the form of anger, suspicion, self-pity, greed and selfishness. Roth raises anew the old questions: What is our responsibility to our fellows? Are we all to blame? One is reminded of Arthur Miller, especially the stark examination of these issues in his play, "Incident at Vichy," set in World War II. Are we left with the impossible choice between either resigning ourselves to the suffering of others or taking on a responsibility whose dimensions doom us to failure?

Time will tell, but "Nemesis" could emerge as the one classic Roth novel all should read.

In 2003--the height of the SARs outbreak--during a visit with my Mother, she told me of her childhood in the midst of a polio outbreak in her hometown that left two of her friends crippled. Thanks to Dr. Salk, it was a threat I never had to face. When I heard the subject of Philip Roth's new book, I was drawn back to the story she had recounted, and I had to read it. I had hoped the book would give me an insight into the world in which she had grown up, and it did not disappoint.

'Nemesis' is a fictitious account of an epidemic terrorizing the citizens of Newark, New Jersey. Bucky Cantor, 23 year old phys ed teacher and playground director, is one of the few young men left in Newark after Pearl Harbor. Being rejected by every branch of the military for his poor eyesight, Bucky is not only saddened to see his friends leave, he is hurt that he is unable to participate. While his friends fight to advance the allied foothold in France, Bucky is facing an equally devastating adversary on the playground he is in charge of. Polio is rapidly sweeping Bucky's ward and, in witnessing it's effects, Bucky is struggling with his own courage to stand up and fight.

The book explores beautifully how people cope with loss, and how people react in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It also delves into the decisions we make, the motivations behind those decisions, and the repercussions that only become clear in hindsight.

The book--almost mercifully--is a short, quick read. It is incredibly intense at times and does not afford much in the way of reprieve from the intensity. That is not to discourage readers, however, because what Roth has given is not only an account of life during a polio epidemic, but a piece of WWII-era Americana. 'Nemesis' is a fascinating and enlightening read that I would highly recommend.

Philip Roth reimagines history like no other author alive. He takes true events and displaces them, adding his own blend of imagination and plausibility.
Though "Nemesis" is placed in the same category in Roth's bibliography as "Everyman", "Indignation", and "The Humbling", it actually falls closer to "The Plot Against America" in terms of plot and style.

There was no polio epidemic in New Jersey in 1945, but Roth imagines one, and then proceeds to tell us of its devastating effects, not just on those stricken with the disease, but also a young man who witnesses these events. Bucky Cantor is a twenty-three year Physical Education teacher, and unlike some of Roth's other heros, is not a tormented intellectual, but rather a solid individual, truly injured at what is happening to the children around him. Gradually, as the epidemic spreads, Bucky begins asking himself questions for which there are no answers.

This is one of the first books in which some of Philip Roth's infamous outrage is directed at the divine. In past novels, it is almost always men and women (usually women) who are the source of the protagonist's crises. But this time, the nemesis is a disease, a germ which cannot be killed at this point in history. It is nameless, faceless, and silent. Roth recognizes that we as human beings require an enemy, someone to blame for the inexplicable happenings in our lives. Who better than God to point the finger at when young children, not old enough to yet be stained by guilt, are ravaged by pain and then die? There is an extremely powerful passage that takes place at a funeral in which Bucky begins to harbor his doubt of the Almighty.

Rather than summarize the plot, I will say that Fate in this novel is a blood hound on the scent of our young hero. A sensitive man who cannot understand why God would allow such suffering.

In the later short novels, Roth has been a writer obsessed with Death and its various forms, both self inflicted and random. How we view life through the lens of impending Death is the subject of "Nemesis" - an apt title considering the hero is uncertain who the enemy is. Is it God, Fate, himself, the disease? Or is it simply Life, that chews us up and spits us out, mindful of no one?

The prose, as always, is some of the most precise in the English language. Roth is an author sure of himself and his abilities and "Nemesis" is a worthy addition to the Roth cannon.

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