Philip Roth

Cover of Exit Ghost

I have read many of Philip Roth's book over the years.  Enjoy his use of language, his stories, the characters and the ever present underlying theme or moral of the story.  So I picked up Exit Ghost which I read this weekend. 

Zuckerman, the main character, is probably Philip Roth.  His anger and frustration at getting older is depressing.  Struggling with illness, sexual impotence, fear, and of course age.  The words flow easily and his writing is as eloquent as ever.  But, his musings certainly about politics, are transparent.  This book, that is a rambling in a post 9/11 world during the time when Bush was given the nod for the second time to stay in office for another four years. 

This is the reaction from one of the characters in Exit Ghost the morning after the election. 

"That a right-wing administration motivated by insatiable greed and sustained by murderous lies and led by a privileged dope should answer America's infantile idea or morality – how do we live with something so grotesque?  How do you manage to insulate yourself from stupidity so bottomless?"

My next book must be a little more upliftng.