{"product_id":"the-humbling-a-novel-isbn-9780063499386","title":"The Humbling: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Elegant and brutal…. Direct and urgent, a taut and controlled fever-dream that demands to be experienced at a single sitting…. [He] is a master.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A vitally important addition to Philip Roth’s already amazing body of work.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTold with Philip Roth's inimitable urgency and bravura, \u003ci\u003eThe Humbling \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of what happens when one\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eof the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything is over for Simon Axler. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great roles, \"are melted into air, into thin air.\" When he goes on stage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to be someone else. His wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can’t persuade him to make a comeback.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInto this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day’s journey into night, all the ways that we convince ourselves of our solidity, all our life’s performances—talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation—are stripped off.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Convincing and powerful….[Roth] is still a literary colossus whose ability to inspire, astonish and enrage his readers is undiminished.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Elegant and brutal…. Direct and urgent, a taut and controlled fever-dream that demands to be experienced at a single sitting…. [He] is a master.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Philip the great, Philip the audacious, the voracious, writes of bottomless hunger—emotional, sexual, existential. When you hear about a new Philip Roth novel, you \u003cem\u003ehave\u003c\/em\u003e to read it…. Roth still has his chops.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eO, the Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Blooms brightly in the extraordinarily fecund garden of his late work…. A swift but piercing, uncluttered but nuanced morality tale.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR, Books We Like\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Humbling\u003c\/em\u003e unfolds in three acts of pristine economy, dramatic lucidity and unstoppable narrative momentum…. The dispassion that has always marked Roth’s narrative voice sometimes achieves the depth and simplicity of the best music or poetry…. The laughter keeps getting quieter and more knowing.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlain Dealer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Masterly…. Powerfully dramatic…. We should be grateful that Roth continues to maintain his concentration on the terrible facts…. [\u003cem\u003eThe Humbling\u003c\/em\u003e] is the most to-the-point, the most necessary work its author has published since \u003cem\u003eThe Dying Animal\u003c\/em\u003e.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Gripping…. The intense realism of some of the scenes is shocking and unforgettable…. Worthy of a David Lynch film…. [Roth] is the most courageous writer alive, and this is another brave move.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A vitally important addition to Philip Roth’s already amazing body of work.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The novel … finds traction in familiar Rothian interrogations—of the self’s deviousness, the impossible murkiness of motive, and the performative nature of identity.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Roth is a master of pacing…. [He is] a great writer, a great anatomist of passion. His admirers will find much to admire in \u003cem\u003eThe Humbling\u003c\/em\u003e.”\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOregonian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Humbling \u003c\/em\u003eshould be read as a kind of Mortality Trilogy with \u003cem\u003eThe Dying Animal\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eEveryman\u003c\/em\u003e, two other autumnal works from this great writer. Short, bitter and bracing, they lend the courage to see and endure what is - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Roth at his rawest…. Slim, bleak and sexy…. Roth’s writing flows gracefully.”\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Compelling…. It takes an artist as gravely ludicrous as Roth to create a body of work in which intertextuality comes to be a brute condition of existence itself.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement (London)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mariner Books Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48588059771109,"sku":"NP9780063499386","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-humbling-a-novel-isbn-9780063499386","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}