Rhythm and blues

Nothing much to report here, no news and no surprises: dog bites man; Philip Roth writes another masterpiece. What would be truly shocking at this stage in the late, great unfolding of Roth’s genius would be if he were to write a bad book, something as bad as The Breast, his last bad book, and that was published in 1972. We expect — and rightly — intermittency of genius: Roth, in an effort which already seems like the stuff of myth and legend, defies our expectations. Since, say, 1995, from Sabbath’s Theater onwards, through American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist, (1998), The Human Stain (2000) and The Plot Against America (2004), he has consistently produced works of brilliance, incomparable books which don’t merely announce their greatness but which are great.

Everyman explores themes that Roth has explored many times before: the complex history of human misunderstanding; and our moral turpitude; and sex; and the plight of the American Jew; the sheer ordure of humanity.