Last month Philip Roth released yet another novel in his long line of,
largely Semite-American focussed books, which he has been writing
since 1959. Everyman is based on a 15th Century English book by an anonymous author but, as always with Roth, links into the history of
America with particular focus on the Jewish community. However, one
novel that goes broader than Judaism in Roth's large anthology is The
Human Stain, written as the third part in his trilogy of books
(American Pastoral, I Married A Communist and this) about post-war American history. While Pastoral looks at Vietnam and Communist focuses on McCarthyism, The Human Stain trickles in and out of the last 50 years of American history, roughly from just before the US entering World War II all the way up to Bill Clinton's sexual scandal with a young Jewish intern.

The angry writing that opens the book showcases Philip Roth's
capability as a writer of complex and vitriolic prose that indicts the
current climate that is more fixated with oral sex than it is war and
poverty. Roth mirrors the actions of the President with the actions of
the novel's protagonist, ex-dean Coleman Silk aged 73, who is having
an affair with a 34 year old cleaner. The characters go from being
rather hollow stereotypes to deeply psychologically constructed people
via the investigation, and to a certain extent imagination of author
Nathan Zuckerman who is befriended by Silk after the latter is fired from his university job due to a misunderstanding that resulted in Silk being fired for racism. Between the facts that Zuckerman discovers and the possibilities he makes up, the reader is taken through the shocking history of Coleman, filled with twists, turns and a shocking secret, as well as the history of the cleaner Faunia Farley and her ex-husband, suffering Vietnam veteran Les Farley. All three represent different strands of American society and Roth utilises their history to
exemplify the kind of social changes, or lack thereof, that have
happened over the course of the Century be they racial segregation,
war, music and political correctness.

But aside from the well-constructed lives of Coleman, Faunia and Les
which help us understand Roth's take on America from three vastly
different lives - the mere imagination and selves created are engaging
enough on a shallow narration level to follow the book. Though the
subtext is hardly subtle enough to be missed, the retrospective life
of Coleman is encapsulating due to the sheer interest of how he
managed to keep his secret a secret¹, while the life of Les Farley almost makes
you feel sorry for the crazed, psychological murderer and Faunia
Farley, the illiterate abused mother of two dead is another kettle of
fish altogether.

The Corner of Chaos
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