Indignation (Vintage International)

I saw the movie first and it made me want to read the book. The book, of course, is more involved than the movie and added more insight into the characters. I was very involved with the main character and intrigued by his conflict with his college environment and era. The story has an unhappy ending and I'm not sure that helps the message of the story. The liberal protagonist is squashed by the conservative institution. There is a hopelessness about striving for progress. What is the message? Don't even try? Conform or parish? Even though I would have it end in a more triumphant way, I enjoyed the characters, the era and the situation.

Coincidence that I got this book and finished it just days before Roth died. It is typical Roth in most ways -- the growing Jewish boy with an overwhelming if loving father who rejects the family's religious beliefs and goes off to find himself, including his sexual self. Not a spoiler will not say what so suddenly happens in the story -- something you sort of thought might happen at the end, but putting it in the middle was a startling if creative way to tell the story. Roth's youth and J.D. Salinger's Catcher are clearly two of the American classics.

As a long-time reader of Roth, I found this brief little novel a pleasant surprise, filled with humanity and pathos that really grabs you by the end, that creeps up; on you slowly and steadily. I also love the form of the brief novel or novella that develops a single idea fairly thoroughly and with skill. I'll bet this did make a fine film--if it ever plays in our small university town!

One of the things I most admire about Philip Roth is his ability to say a great deal, and to express a good deal of emotion, with a very few words. This small book, almost a novella, illustrates that ability very well. The story is deceptively simple, and yet is fraught with the imagery and symbolism of the fluids of life -- blood, tears, semen -- along with almost constant of fear,emotional pain and yearning. Marcus Messner,the young protagonist,has, for most of his life, to be a "good boy." He followed the rules and the example set forth by his Jewish parents, Kosher butchers who worked diligently to make a good life for themselves and for Marcus, their only son. The Messners' journey is that of the classic American Dream. Marcus is studious, focusing on making good grades so he can not only have a successful career, but also so that he can avoid having to fight in the Korean War. His father's growing anxiety and irrational fears for his son's safety lead the son to flee his home in Newark, New Jersey to Winesburg, Ohio, in the heart of Middle America, where life is turns out to be far from what it seemed to be in the college catalogue that lured him there. Every character, from Marcus and his parents to Olivia, the emotionally scarred girl with whom Marcus experiences his sexual awakening, as well as the college boys with whom Marcus will have to deal, and the dean of the college, a classic authority figure -- each has his or her secrets and inner turmoil. The pitch of the emotion continues to rise throughout the book until the climax (another thematic device, both sexual and emotional), the denoument of the young man's tragic life. By always struggling to do what he was supposed to do, Marcus was finally forced to see his life for what it was, and he ultimately rebelled against the very values he'd been raised under, the values he'd clung to all his life. Marcus grows quickly and realizes, to his horror, that he has traded one life of imprisoned emotion for another. A stunningly moving read. Brief, but very moving.

A wonderfully written book that I could not put down. The story is in many ways my story: parents who show their pride in a son; a dad who goes into a worry phase about his son. A son who grew up as I did, i.e. working with my family and taking on some distasteful chores; going away to college and life opening up on whole new vistas - sharing a dormitory room, a relationship with a very special girl. Roth is at his best in this story.

Marcus Messner is alienated from his family, attends a college he hates, and has no real friends. He eventually realizes that he needs some human contact, so he asks a girl out on a date. She says yes. And so begins the tragic story of a love affair doomed to failure from the start. A deeply moving novel about the need for real human connection.

Great book. I didn't know anything about it until I recently saw the movie. The high point for me is portraying what it was like to be on a college campus in the 1950's---the school rules, the social scene and the students.The book arrived and I decided to check it out---didn't put it down and stayed up past my bedtime until I finished it.

Seemed like a very basic story line a little crude in the way it has been written, very little charecter development people popped in and out of the story and you never know what happened to them. A diffinite fast read questioning if I would reccomend to my gal pals might to my guy friends.