I have no idea how Philip Roth manages to produce work of such quality so frequently. Indignation is his 29th book, and his third in three years. As with so much of Roth’s work, it concerns what it means to be a young Jewish man in the United States, in an era heavy with history. Our hero is born in Newark, being raised by parents with an overweening interest in his physical and moral safety.
It’s easy to forget that almost as soon as the Second World War was over, the US got involved in another one in Korea. It’s not clear until the end of the book exactly how the Korean war will affect the destiny of the book’s narrator, Marcus Messner. But it looms over the entire narrative.
Marcus tries to escape his father’s overly cautious protection by enrolling at the conservative Winesburg College in Ohio. Here he meets Olivia, who is beautiful, promiscuous and troubled. He has his first sexual experience with her in a borrowed car.
Marcus is a stellar student academically, but has an argumentative streak and refuses to compromise. He’s particularly aggrieved by the requirement that he attend the (Christian) chapel at least 40 times per academic year. He has some trouble adapting to the atmosphere at Winesburg, in particular to his dorm mates, and ends up being questioned by the ‘Dean of Men’ about his inability to settle.
This scene is the core of the book – sections of it being lifted directly (as Roth acknowledges) from Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian – as Marcus argues his case with the Dean. He does so brilliantly, but the Dean’s faith is immovable. The scene is hilarious, despite its serious subject matter, and the results of the meeting determine Marcus’s future.
Indignation is beautifully written without being in any way flowery. His prose is masculine, with no hint of prissiness, and yet it feels so finely crafted. It’s almost balletic (in the Baryshnikov sense). There are countless sentences that stand out for their humour or their insight, as if you’d get pleasure from reading it even if it was entirely content free. But of course it isn’t.
I’ve said it before, but when will the Nobel Academy finally give Roth the prize he so richly deserves?
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