The Human Stain: A Novel

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Athena College was snoozing complacently in the Berkshires until Coleman Silk--formerly "Silky Silk," undefeated welterweight pro boxer--strode in and shook the place awake. This faculty dean sacked the deadwood, made lots of hot new hires, including Yale-spawned literary-theory wunderkind Delphine Roux, and pissed off so many people for so many decades that now, in 1998, they've all turned on him. Silk's character assassination is partly owing to what the novel's narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, calls "the Devil of the Little Place--the gossip, the jealousy, the acrimony, the boredom, the lies."

But shocking, intensely dramatized events precipitate Silk's crisis. He remarks of two students who never showed up for class, "Do they exist or are they spooks?" They turn out to be black, and lodge a bogus charge of racism exploited by his enemies. Then, at 71, Viagra catapults Silk into "the perpetual state of emergency that is sexual intoxication," and he ignites an affair with an illiterate janitor, Faunia Farley, 34. She's got a sharp sensibility, "the laugh of a barmaid who keeps a baseball bat at her feet in case of trouble," and a melancholy voluptuousness. "I'm back in the tornado," Silk exults. His campus persecutors burn him for it--and his main betrayer is Delphine Roux.

In a short space, it's tough to convey the gale-force quality of Silk's rants, or the odd effect of Zuckerman's narration, alternately retrospective and torrentially in the moment. The flashbacks to Silk's youth in New Jersey are just as important as his turbulent forced retirement, because it turns out that for his entire adult life, Silk has been covering up the fact that he is a black man. (If this seems implausible, consider that the famous New York Times book critic Anatole Broyard did the same thing.) Young Silk rejects both the racism that bars him from Woolworth's counter and the Negro solidarity of Howard University. "Neither the they of Woolworth's nor the we of Howard" is for Coleman Silk. "Instead the raw I with all its agility. Self-discovery--that was the punch to the labonz.... Self-knowledge but concealed. What is as powerful as that?"

Silk's contradictions power a great Philip Roth novel, but he's not the only character who packs a punch. Faunia, brutally abused by her Vietnam vet husband (a sketchy guy who seems to have wandered in from a lesser Russell Banks novel), scarred by the death of her kids, is one of Roth's best female characters ever. The self-serving Delphine Roux is intriguingly (and convincingly) nutty, and any number of minor characters pop in, mouth off, kick ass, and vanish, leaving a vivid sense of human passion and perversity behind. You might call it a stain. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small New England town, an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is a lie, but the real truth about Silk would have astonished even his most virulent accuser.

Coleman Silk has a secret, one which has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the larger public history of modern America."

Customer Reviews:

Are you kidding me??????.......2007-06-22

How does a light skin black man "an oxymoron" if I ever heard one pass himself off as a Jewish man? First off, ask any black person who has family members of every shade, if any light skinned black person can pass as white. Impossible! Lets give Mr. Roth the benefit of the doubt, lets say that a light skinned black man can pass himself off as white. Why would he then become Jewish? European Jews came to America and dropped their so-called Jewish sounding names to become more Anglo. And here we have this light skinned black man, becoming a Jew, not an Anglo, which is more advantagous to him but a Jew!

Give me a break! Only a white novalist could come up with this dribble! What is Mr. Roth trying to say exactly? It is better for so-called light skinned blacks to be anything other than, say black?? And how exactly does one pass oneself off as a Jew? By changing one's name from Leroy Jones to Lenny White? This story proves what I have always believed about some, and I say it again "some" whites in this county, they have no concept of who or what African Americans, blacks or what ever name they what to call Africans. By the way, here is a list of mixed Africans, Derek Jeter (Yankees), Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and so on, all have light skin. So, which one of them can pass and become white? Mariah Carey, and she would me more latina, than white.

The only blacks that passed back in the day are the ones that are white in appearance. Not! Light skinned blacks. Mr. Roth would have been better served if he wrote a book about a Jewish man passing as Anglo, a topic which I am sure he would have been well versed.

4.5 stars for The Human Stain.......2007-04-18

In this book Roth sets the story of an African- American college professor who has spent his adult life "passing: as white against the backdrop of the Clinton -Monica Lewinsky scandal. The character of Coleman Silk is shattered by an ironic and unfair accusation of racism at the school that forces him to end his career while preserving his secret. He begins an affair with a female janitor at the school who is divorced from an angry and unbalanced VietNam Vet from whom she had suffered abuse. Her tragic past collides with SIlk's tragic present resulting in the story's slow build toward a disasterous end. An American tragedy that has people victimized by circumstances beyond their control as well as by their own decisions , the Human Stain is a complex story that examines hypocrisy and racial, economic and social biases in American Society.

A Life Based on a Lie!.......2007-03-31

Dean Coleman Silk had kept a secret that he was actually light-skinned African American who passed for Jewish and maintained that identity for the rest of his life. According to Philip Roth's alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman, Silk chose to live this way. While most of us would abhor such a decision, Roth helps us to understand how Silk who probably never fit in the African American world because he was too light but let people assume he was Jewish. I felt so bad for his family who he disowned. His poor mother who was never acknowledged to Iris. Who was Iris anyway? Maybe she would have accepted, she appeared to be more understanding that COleman gives her credit for. You just don't sympathize with Coleman because you don't understand how somebody could live a lie and how it effected his family's life as well as his children, wife, relatives and friends. You wonder if he told the truth, how much richer his life would have been. Maybe Iris and her family would accept their African American relatives.

a contemptible pleasure.......2007-02-20

Not only have I not been so moved by a book for a while, but I hadn't been moved by a book by Philip Roth in an even longer time. I had a brief fascination with Roth back in graduate school, and then all interest for him fell by the wayside.

Then, a student of mine, one with whom I could talk delightfully about DeLillo, Barthelme, even Beckett, told me that she had read _American Pastoral_, and that it had changed her life. When I went to get said book, I found out then (and only then) that this book was also written by Roth. I knew of the movie, and had thankfully not seen it yet, and decided to get to this one first.

Roth does have a tendency to get a little long-winded, with paragraphs that cover pages at a time, but I think that man has earned the privelege at this point. The scope and depth of character that he achieves, all in the name of the search for personality, is overwhelming. Coleman Silk is both sympathetic and repulsive, probably a staple of Roth since _Portnoy's Complaint_, as this classics professor is undone by a simple miscontruing of context--turns out, the missing students that he wonders aloud about the possibility of being 'spooks' are black, and this man who is steadfast in his ego and place in the world goes more than a little haywire and winds up befriending writer Nathan Zuckerman in order to have his tale told--but does Coleman want the REAL story, or just his own version of it?

Zuckerman, of course, delves into the depths of the relationships among people in this academically incestuous town. Coleman is demanding and secretive, but to extreme ends, which also makes him quite sad. Roth even explores with alarming pathos into the mind of Les, an abusive ex-husband who is a Vietnam vet. There is a constant fight here when it comes to happiness and identity--those who think, and those who experience, and Roth adeptly never comes down on one side or another.

There is, of course, something a little gratuitous about Roth's handling of Delphine Roux, a female literary critic and language professor who seems unable to please herself in any way, once she lets herself think about what she is doing, but the entire cast that Roth creates pales her out enough to make her presence not so scathing.

There were times that I struggled with this book, and got angry at its direction, but I would only offer that as testament to its brilliance--to develop intricate feelings and revulsions over a book is something to offer as a highlight.

Identity check.......2006-12-08

On one level, this is the story of an old-school classics professor, formerly the powerful dean of his New England college, who is driven to resign on charges of racism then further alienates members of the community through his subsequent actions. On another, most strikingly, it is a book about identity and the degree to which we may reinvent ourselves, not merely building on our backgrounds but even rewriting them. On yet another, it is a meditation on the American decline from the postwar years through the trauma of Vietnam to the moral relativity of the Clinton era. On all these levels, Roth succeeds magnificently. Perhaps he is over-fond of extended ruminations which almost become sermons, and I also wonder whether the campus politics setting would work for all audiences. But he has a wonderfully sly method of keeping the reader on his toes by interjecting important events and disclosures almost as asides, while revealing layer upon layer of his increasingly interesting characters.

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses The Human Stain, the Novel by Philip Roth (Bookclub in a Box Discusses)

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Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses The Human Stain, the Novel by Philip Roth (Bookclub in a Box Discusses)
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Bookclub-in-a-Box
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Human Stain: A Novel
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ASIN: 0973398442
Release Date: 2005-07-18

Book Description

Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's favorite narrator, is at it again, and Bookclub-in-a-Box is right by his side. After you read this fascinating book, read the Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide and discover Roth's genius as a writer. If one is already a fan of Philip Roth, they will be thrilled with this discussion; if they are not yet a fan, they will become one with the help of Bookclub-in-a-Box.

Secrecy and self-invention: Philip Roth's postmodern identity in The Human Stain.: An article from: International Fiction Review

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Secrecy and self-invention: Philip Roth's postmodern identity in The Human Stain.: An article from: International Fiction Review
G. Neelakantan
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000WH7L2G
Release Date: 2007-09-26

Book Description

This digital document is an article from International Fiction Review, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 6699 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Secrecy and self-invention: Philip Roth's postmodern identity in The Human Stain.
Author: G. Neelakantan
Publication: International Fiction Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 34 Issue: 1-2 Page: 27(13)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Pamela is a mystery Alexei is determined to solve ...

Prince Alexei of Avalonia is a master at the art of seduction, but when a mysterious young woman he meets at a masked ball spends the night in his bed, he finds he is touched in ways he cannot forget. Still, he wonders if she was real or a dream spun of moonlight.

Alexei might well be a temptation Pamela cannot resist ...

And Miss Pamela Effington is no dream. Certainly, succumbing to the prince's seduction was madness. Now she's come to her senses and is thankful their paths will never cross again. Even if they do, he had never truly seen her face.

But they are both in for the shock of their lives. For back in London, determined to lead a blameless life, Pamela finds Alexei occupying her home -- a townhouse she's only recently inherited -- and he refuses to leave. A feigned courtship seems an excellent idea, and soon the mystery and temptation begin all over again.

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Pamela is a mystery Alexei is determined to solve ...

Alexei might well be a temptation Pamela cannot resist ...

Customer Reviews:

Victoria Alexander Collection.......2007-08-01

I just love Victoria Alexander and have all of her books. I had orginal purchased this book at the store, but lost it somewhere and needed to repurchase to finish reading and to keep in my collection.

Another great Victoria Alexander book!.......2006-09-27

It's been a while since I read this one, but I remember Alexei's turmoil as an exiled sovereign and how he felt he had nothing to offer Pamela. And I agree with another reviewer that Valentina needs her own book.
My favorite books by Ms. Alexander are Love with the Proper Husband and The Husband List, but you can pick up any book and be assured of a great story with well-written characters.

Good Read.......2005-11-15

This was my first Victoria Alexander, and I am happy to say, not my last. I really enjoyed the heroine being more independent and assertive. I reread the fencing scene at the end a couple of times, it was so good. It turns out, this was four different love stories in one book - for Pamela, Aunt Millicent, Clarissa, and Valentine, each with its own humor and sweetness. I would highly recommend this as a good romance read.

Good but maybe not quite sexy enough for Alexei.......2005-10-31

I don't know, after an earlier book with Alexei being one of the most seductive men in Europe I kinda expected a little bit more passion in this story. It is find that situations in his life caused him to grow up and reform but still I would have expected a little bit more romance and sizzling situations between Alexei and Pamela. In that regard I thought the story was a little lacking - someone mentioned the ending. I agree although I have no problem with the fencing match because at that point it seemed the only way to get Alexei to finally admit his love for Pamela but could the author not have added a couple more pages or pure romance? This was a good story but it could have been a perfect story. I also sometimes get frustrated with Alexander's lack of bringing in some of the other people for earlier books to make these people's lives more complete. She seems to be a little hit and miss with that certainly no Johanna Lindsey or Julia Quinn. But people that have enjoyed this series will find this a good read.

Fast Moving Historical Romance .......2005-10-03

`When We Meet' by Victoria Alexander is a wonderful Historical Romance novel. I was up half the night enjoying every twist and turn of the story. The story unfolds after Pamela seduces a Prince after a grand masked ball and then meets him again fours years later and the sparks fly. The dialogue is great and sub-romance stories of the three other couples are amusing. I would highly recommend this quick fun read and would also recommend 'A Loving Scoundrel' by Johanna Lindsey and `All about love' by Stephanie Laurens.

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A Great Time Travel!!!!
The best book I have ever read.
Hollie's biggest fan in Warren, Ohio
Such a great story!
Completely mesmerized by this book

When We Do Meet Again (Time Travelers)
Hollie Van Horne
Manufacturer: Time Travelers LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

When We Do Meet Again ~ Brilliant Chicago surgeon, Dr. Stephen Templeton, needed a sabbatical to combat his overwhelming depression. A drive down River Road in Vacherie, Louisiana -- outside New Orleans -- promised to be just what the doctor ordered to relieve his stress, when a ruined antebellum mansion beckoned for him to purchase and restore it. That's when he met her. The ghost of its former mistress, Isabella Durel, who was murdered December 25, 1838 -- in this, her plantation home. It wasn't long before he found her portrait and fell in love with her yet only days before he found her husband's painting and realized that he was the reincarnation of Emile Durel! Can Stephen give her the second chance at life and love for which she's yearned for over a hundred years? Can he find sanity in her loving embrace? Can he find a murderer and reverse her fate before it's too late? Only if Time Travelers Incorporated can work their magic and send him through the time tunnel so that he may return to his wife and his life as Emile Durel circa 1838.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Time Travel!!!!.......2003-10-21

This was a first time read for me and I found Ms. Van Horne a very entertaining author. This book had a great romance, wonderful location, and a great mystery.

A doctor falls in love with his resident ghost and finds that he wants to help her onto the next place. He is reluctant to tell anyone about his feelings and thinks that he may just be going insane when he finds an ad for Time Travelers. He contacts Sam and the next thing he knows he is planning a trip to visit his love in person. He plans on saving her from being killed perhaps by her husband. Problem is he is a dead ringer for the bad guy but he will do what he has to give peace to Isabelle.

This was a very touching story and I found myself laughing and crying. If you enjoy reading a story that touches on all of your emotions as being creative this is the story for you.

The best book I have ever read........2001-12-21

I met the author at a book signing at Century 3 Mall in Pitts. Pa. and bought the book there. It is the greatest book I have ever read!!!!! I have told all my friends in Maine to read it. I just bought Wild Roses for Miss Jane, and I am sure it will be just as good.

Hollie's biggest fan in Warren, Ohio.......2001-10-29

When We Do Meet Again is a must read for anyone who loves a good mystery, time travel love story, haunted mansion's in New Orleans, and Southern Plantations in the 1830's, handsome Creole heroes, and tempered Creole beauties. This is the only mystery in the time travel series so far, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Believe me when I tell you that you will love this book! I highly recommend it, and if I tell you too much it will spoil the ending for you--so if you have never read this series--this is a good book to start with.

Such a great story!.......2001-10-19

I felt like I was time travelling along with our fearless hero! The story is easy to follow. I felt like I was involved with the characters from the beginning.

This is the second book I have read by Ms. Van Horne. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series. I've always wondered if time travel is possible. When reading Ms. Van Horne's books, I feel it is totally possible!

Completely mesmerized by this book.......2001-08-01

I purchased this book last Saturday and finished it Monday evening. I was so mesmerized by Van Horne's book, I could not put it down. I must say that this is the best book of fiction I have read in a very long time. I plan to read the rest in the time travelers series. I only wish that we could actually take such a journey back in time.

Children of the Promise, Vol. 4: When We Meet Again

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Children of the Promise, Vol. 4: When We Meet Again
Dean Hughes
Manufacturer: Deseret Book Company
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Binding: Paperback

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Alex knew some time had passed when he came back to consciousness. He was lying on his back, looking up toward the sun. There were four faces over him now, and one of the men said, "Get up. You're a prisoner of war." "I'm an American." "You can tell that story to someone else. We're going to turn you over." "What about Otto? He's a German, but he's working for us." "He's not working for nobody now. He's dead. Now get up." Following the Battle of the Bulge, Alex Thomas is reassigned not without reluctance to an intelligence unit in Germany. The new assignment challenges Alex's deepest moral values and is more life threatening than combat. As a POW in Japan, Wally suffers torture that may only find relief in death, while Bobbi sorts out her true feelings when she runs into Professor David Stinson thousands of miles away from home. As the Thomas siblings face new trials in this fourth installment of Dean Hughes's best-selling series, the tides of war appear to ebb as Germany falls to allied forces in Europe and Japan's grip on the Pacific is loosened by a new, extremely powerful weapon the atomic bomb. Don't miss this exciting episode in the

When We Meet Again (Children of the Promise, Vol. 4)

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Writing at its best
Will the war ever end for the Thomases?

When We Meet Again (Children of the Promise, Vol. 4)
Dean Hughes
Manufacturer: Deseret Book Co
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Customer Reviews:

Writing at its best.......2006-05-30

Dean Hughes is the best. He has the talent of writing a story that immediately brings you into the thick of it. This is a series of WW2 novels, with 5 volumes being in the first series. You feel for what this family is going through as they try and cope with World War 2. Best of all, they are "clean" books. None of the smut and dirty language. Dean doesn't need any of that. He writes a great story!!!. I recommend this series plus his follow up series Hearts of the Children another great 5 volumes.

Will the war ever end for the Thomases?.......2005-02-14

In the fourth installment of the Children of the Promise series, Hughes takes us deeper into the wartime lives of Alex, Wally and Bobbi. Alex faces time as a prisoner, Wally continues in the unspeakable horror known as the Japanese P.O.W. camps and Bobbi struggles to keep her relationship with Richard alive as wounded soldiers pour in from the South Pacific theater. The reader is drawn so deeply into the lives of these characters they almost seem like family. Hughes, once again, has brilliantly triumphed in continuing to keep us so tuned in to the Thomases.

When We Meet Again (Children of the Promise Vol. 4, 4)

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The Thomas family members face ongoing challenges in the dark years at the close of WW2. Alex's values are tested as he works to complete an intelligence assignment in Germany while wondering if he'll ever see his beloved Anna and their son again. Wally struggles to survive the torture he endures as a POW, and Bobbi has to make a difficult choice between the men in her life. Back home in Utah, LaRue and her father, President Alexander Thomas, have drawn their own battle lines.

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Children of the Promise: Vol. 4: When We Meet Again
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Book on 5 CDs (abridged) Alex knew some time had passed when he came back to consciousness. He was lying on his back, looking up toward the sun. There were four faces over him now, and one of the men said, "Get up. You're a prisoner of war." "I'm an American." "You can tell that story to someone else. We're going to turn you over." "What about Otto? He's a German, but he's working for us." "He's not working for nobody now. He's dead. Now get up." Following the Battle of the Bulge, Alex Thomas is reassigned not without reluctance to an intelligence unit in Germany. The new assignment challenges Alex's deepest moral values and is more life threatening than combat. As a POW in Japan, Wally suffers torture that may only find relief in death, while Bobbi sorts out her true feelings when she runs into Professor David Stinson thousands of miles away from home. As the Thomas siblings face new trials in this fourth installment of Dean Hughes's best-selling series, the tides of war appear to ebb as Germany falls to allied forces in Europe and Japan's grip on the Pacific is loosened by a new, extremely powerful weapon the atomic bomb. Don't miss this exciting episode in the five-volume series.

Victoria Alexander (When We Meet Again, The Pursuit of Marriage, The Princes Bride, Her Highness My Wife, Love with the Proper Husband, and A Visit from Nicholas)

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Distressed over the current widespread disinterest in matrimony among their eminently marriageable offspring, the formidable matriarchs of the ton have taken matters into their own meddling hands with the formation of The Ladies' Society for the Betterment of the Future of Britain.

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When We Meet Again

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Younhee Paik When We Meet Again: Heart Ganges

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