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Exit Ghost Review
Walking the streets like a revenant, he quickly makes three connections that explode his carefully protected solitude. One is with a young couple with whom, in a rash moment, he offers to swap homes. They will flee post-9/11 Manhattan for his country refuge, and he will return to city life. But from the time he meets them, Zuckerman also wants to swap his solitude for the erotic challenge of the young woman, Jamie, whose allure draws him back to all that he thought he had left behind: intimacy, the vibrant play of heart and body. The second connection is with a figure from Zuckerman's youth, Amy Bellette, companion and muse to Zuckerman's first literary hero, E. I. Lonoff. The once irresistible Amy is now an old woman depleted by illness, guarding the memory of that grandly austere American writer who showed Nathan the solitary path to a writing vocation. The third connection is with Lonoff's would-be biographer, a young literary hound who will do and say nearly anything to get to Lonoff's "great secret." Suddenly involved, as he never wanted or intended to be involved again, with love, mourning, desire, and animosity, Zuckerman plays out an interior drama of vivid and poignant possibilities. Haunted by Roth's earlier work The Ghost Writer, Exit Ghost is an amazing leap into yet another phase in this great writer's insatiable commitment to fiction. User Submitted Exit Ghost ReviewsSeptember 23, 2008 RANT AGAINST DEATH AND THE DEATH OF LITERATURE 71-year-old Nathan Zuckerman, an established writer and thoughtful loner, hates cell phones and the narcissism of contemporary life, viewing himself as an "escapee from the coarse-grained world" of the Bush Administration and New York City after September 11, 2001 as well as of prostate problems and incontinence. In a blink of an eye, Zuckerman finds himself attracted to Amy, a wealthy, married, 30-year-old woman while also trying to avoid Richard Kliman (Amy's former lover from college), a wanna-be biographer who threatens to destroy the reputation of Zuckerman's oldest and closest friend, a writer, now dead and forgotten, by the name of Lonoff, because of an incident of incest when the deceased writer was a teenager. In his struggles with his nemesis, Philip Roth allows us to read about one writer's well-thought-out views on literary tabloidism (which is Kliman's whole career project: personal scandal as a means of discussing literature or writers) and why great authors today necessarily are "ghosts" exiting a vanishing literary scene. This deep theme is starkly contrasted to the pathetic but humorously absurd theme of being an imperfect human being who, at 71, still has the heterosexual desires of the typical teenager. I can't imagine anyone under 50 really appreciating the perspective of this contemplative, self-aware, articulate septuagenarian (without finding it bleak or boring). For myself, as I approach 60, I admire any thoughtful writer willing to discuss the battle with deterioration and death without platitudes. Few there be! The "ghost exit" theme was perfect literary enjoyment. June 29, 2008 Character driven novel w/focus on internal monologue Exit Ghost focuses on 71 year old Nathan Zuckerman, writer, thinker, hermit. He comes back to NYC after a 10yr retreat in his rural cabin. Reading this novel, you become intimate with Zuckerman, his every thought and the rational behind every decision. There are long dialogues with other characters. If you're looking for action, this isn't it. Not much drama happening here, except that created by the characters in their own minds. Roth writes superb sentences. He summarizes situations profoundly in a few words. The structure and story hold together, and i like the devices Roth uses in writing the novel. It's a solid piece of work. Personally, it's my opinion that Roth portrays Zuckerman as Joyce portrays S. Daedalus. But Roth would hate that i'm expressing my opinion on his work, and that you're wasting your time reading my opinion. In a perfect literary world, critics wouldn't comment, and readers would consume only the author's work. June 24, 2008 Lifeless, Often Dull, Coda to Nathan Zuckerman's Life and Career Having come across both Nathan Zuckerman - Philip Roth's fictional alter ego - and Roth's other work for years, I was eagerly awaiting "Exit Ghost" as the final chapter in Zuckerman's "life". What a final chapter it is, since it is more like a leisurely descent into a tedious half-hearted love affair between Zuckerman and a young Harvard-educated writer who is married to yet another young writer. While Roth still excells in writing fascinating dialogue and crisp prose, there's not much of a story to hang onto here, except for Zuckerman's precarious health, romantic fling, and an unexpected odyssey to look anew at the career of one of his mentors. Roth incorporates in passing, much of the current cultural and political landscape, making obligatory nods to 9/11, the War on Terror and the 2004 presidential election. But, these are mere "obligatory nods", not thoughtful commentary on the state of our society as I have seen, for example, from acclaimed science fiction writer William Gibson in his recent novels "Pattern Recognition" and "Spook Country" (Indeed who would have thought that Roth's importance as a fictional commentator of our time would be overtaken by the very man who coined the term "cyberspace"?). Forget Zuckerman and Roth, unless you wish to read Roth's compelling alternate history novel, "The Plot Against America". May 6, 2008 poignant, as always. I LOVE Philip Roth for his brutal and often embarrassing honesty, his incredibly sharp insight into cultural phenomena and their absurdity about which most of people are oblivious. In Exit Ghost, the protagonist is alot more subdued than in previous Zuckerman books, however, his forced withdrawal makes his observations far more introspective, and his imaginations more personal. I also enjoyed cultural commentaries through his characters about the dangers of tainting literature by cultural journalism. April 30, 2008 The past is prologue This is Nathan Zuckerman's latest novel. For those who may not know, Nathan Zuckerman is Philip Roth's alter ego and is the protagonist in many of Mr. Roth's books. For a decade, Nathan has relocated from the fast paced, daily craziness that is Manhattan to the quietness and solitude of the Berkshires to enable him to better concentrate on his writing. Nathan sees an advertisement of a young, newly married couple who desire to swap their apartment in Manhattan with someone living in a more bucholic environment, far away from the city. Jamie, the young wife in this couple, lives in constant fear of a terrorist attack in post-9/11 New York. Nathan, now 71, had come to New York for prostate surgery and, then, for post-surgical treatment for incontinence. A secondary effect from the surgery is impotence. Nathan, while in New York, spots from the distance an old friend, Amy Bellette, the lover of the late I.E. Lonoff, a distinguished writer and early hero to Nathan. Amy, once youthful and quite attractive, is old and sick now. Nathan wishes to have lunch with Amy to speak over old times. Nathan who would like to write Lonoff's biography, is in competition with Richard Kleiman for the job. Kleiman allegedly knows a scandalous secret of Lonoff's and is threatening to expose it in his intended biography. Having answered the young couple's ad and meeting with them, Nathan falls in love with Jamie and finds himself pining for her. Nathan is desparately smitten with her, but is extremely frustrated because of his chronic physical condition. Nathan is no longer the ladies's man he once was. Nathan tries to work out his dilemma by writing a story, which Nathan names, "He and She" which consists of a dialogue between the young woman with the much older man. It touches upon Nathan's current dilemma. Nathan also wishes to protect the infirm Amy from the annoyingly insistent Kleiman. It is interesting that when Nathan meets Lonoff, his wife, and Lonoff's sweetheart, Amy, Nathan is working on a novel, _Ghost Writer_ about a young woman visiting the Lonoffs who bears a strong resemblance to a famous and beloved Holocaust martyr. Nathan becomes obsessed with her both as a male and a Jew. What makes _Exit Ghost_ resonate so strongly with me is its keen sensitivity to the plight of the protagonist in his attempts to exorcise, or at least to reconcile, the ghosts of his past with the agonizing realities of the present. _Exit Ghost_ is palpably real and must be a particularly personal and heart felt work to Philip Roth. Therein lies the book's excellence. April 29, 2008 Self-endulgent and boring Exit Ghost was my first "Zuckerman" story, and even without knowing the history it was immediately obvious that Roth was writing about himself. Also obvious was that this is the latest effort in an on-going, self-indulgent exercise. Certainly Roth writes well, but capturing attention requires more than that, and a few chapters were all I could manage. I suppose that readers who've read earlier "Zuckerman" stories might want to see how it all ended, but as a stand-alone story it was just boring. By the way Mr. Roth, having voted about 75% Democrat and 25% Republican in my own lifetime, I find it difficult to understand how anyone could think it exemplary or intelligent to have voted 100% one way or the other over their lifetime. Why on earth would you brag about behaving like an automaton? March 8, 2008 Rehabilitation by disgrace The hero hasn't been in the city for eleven years. He lives on a rural mountain road in the Berkshires. He is to go to NYC for a medical consultation. Nathan Zuckerman seems obedient to his neighbor Larry's discipline. He eats with the family, goes out to dinner with them, and accepts, as a gift, two kittens. Larry has broken in upon Nathan's austere and lonely regimen. Even after Larry's suicide, Nathan is willing to follow his dictate, not to be alone. Possibilities for company emerge by being in New York. First he goes to the Strand to buy Lonoff's short stories. (Lonoff's career and works have been one of Nathan's longstanding preoccupations.) Next Nathan Zuckerman answers an ad in THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS for a house exchange and meets a young couple. He learns that E.I. Lonoff's friend, companion, Amy Bellette has brain cancer. Eventually he sees her. In the end the issue of how an aged writer of fiction positions himself emerges. In the matter of potency, imagination is driven by an inner force; but what happens when there is a failure of memory? To safeguard creative products it is necessary to beat back menaces from journalism and other spheres. The book is vigorous, suitably dense, impressively lively. February 29, 2008 Indestructible I don't know which scene I liked better -- the deconstruction of George Plimpton or the scene where Joseph Conrad is being read out loud. The former, I drank in the long description about social status and its impact on Plimpton and his experiential journalism. The latter, among the most heartfelt scenes I've ever encountered, not only because I'm a big fan of Conrad. How Roth weaves in themes of alteration and fragility and frailty and the temporal spirit of mankind is, quite simply, amazing. Being relentlessly blunt -- that's the key with Roth. You are never disappointed because he never holds back. He creates a nice triangle of love-hate here and the bitterness and tenderness are interwoven like a tightly wound, dare I suggest...mortal coil. January 24, 2008 EXIT The negative effects of prostate cancer settle prominently in Nathan Zuckerman's 71 year old mind and body. Now, as a sexually ineffective man yearning to rekindle his ability to love, Zuckerman's lust for a woman 40 years younger is propped up and sustained only by an imaginary affair concocted with pen and paper. After all, Zuckerman is yet a reputable writer and author. What happens in the end, one can imagine but only after reading to the end. Only a writer of Philip Roth's caliber can take a simple plot and create a profound narrative of structured, meaningful words and phrases. However, Roth gets caught up in political diatribe which detracts from the story and adds nothing except to describe an attitude of extreme liberalism. His characters of the 30 something generation, and Zuckerman himself, express not merely opinions such as "Bush lies" and "irresponsible National Rifle Association," but also pure denigration and hate against the Bush administration and his followers, some of which include - "evil people," "motivated by insatiable greed," "worse than the terrorists." "It's not Al Qaeda that scares me, it's my own government." "Religion! Why don't they put their trust in crystal gazing as a means of apprehending the truth?" Even the Texas drawl has been screwed up by G.W. Bush! (He can't talk right and can't even get the accent right.) No, I am not a Republican - merely an observer. If this were a strictly political novel, such opinions should be expected, but over 20pp (of 304pp) covering those topics leaves me questioning...Roth's novel could have been another "winner" sans unnecessary political and social diatribe. January 21, 2008 Intriguing tale, distracting execution While the storyline makes for good reading, the execution with the inserted play-script dialogue is annoying and distracting. Rather than writing a story where the interactions of the characters tell the tale, or even hint at the feelings of the characters without being totally explicit, the sections of sterile scripted presentation make the story seem even more fabricated than fiction of course is. What you end up with is not-very-fleshed-out daydreaming, without even stage direction. A good story, but not a great read. For more Exit Ghost reviews click here.
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