The Human Stain review

During my recent stint of borrowing books, two people independently gave me books by Philip Roth - The Human Stain was one of them, and reading it was an interesting experience.

All the different aspects of the book were designed to put me off - I didn't like any of the characters, the plot was fairly unpleasant, and the style shifted constantly between first and third person, past and present tense, straight narrative and stream of consciousness.  And yet, at no point did I consider giving up on it.

I admit I did struggle with it at points - the sentences were often very long, the way the story gradually coalesced from fragments of differing perspectives made it difficult to get into, and the themes of race, war, sexual politics and personal identity were quite heavy.

But it was extremely well written, and definitely absorbing.  It made me think (much like a lot of things lately) that I'm not nearly as clever as I like to think I am, but luckily that doesn't bother me as much as it probably would have done a few years ago.

I feel like I'm rambling - perhaps trying to write a review of The Human Stain five minutes after finishing it wasn't a good idea!

Overall, I would count it as another success from my current book lender - it's a book I don't think I would have read if she hadn't lent it to me, and being challenged by literature is never a bad thing.

I don't think I'll read the other Philip Roth book on my shelf right away, but it'll definitely stay on the list for the near future.