Download The Humbling AudioBook Free
Everything has ended for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth s startling new book. Among the leading American level stars of his technology, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his ability, and his guarantee. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great functions, "are melted into air, into nothing." When he moves onstage he feels as though a lunatic and appears like an idiot. His self-confidence in his capabilities has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can't pretend to be another person. "Something important has vanished." His partner has gone, his audience has kept him, his agent can t persuade him to make a return.
Into this shattering bank account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of strange erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it issues not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and even more shocking end. On this long day s journey into night, informed with Roth s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity, all the techniques we encourage ourselves of our solidity, all our life s performances talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation are stripped off.
The Humbling is Roth s thirtieth book.
