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Philip Roth

The Humbling Hardcover – October 21, 2009

by Philip Roth (Author)

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Everything is over for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth s startling new book. One of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great roles, "are melted into air, into thin air." When he goes onstage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to be someone else. "Something fundamental has vanished." His wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can t persuade him to make a comeback.

Into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day s journey into night, told with Roth s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity, all the ways that we convince 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.

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade
Publication date

October 21, 2009
Dimensions

5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

0547239696
ISBN-13

978-0547239699
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A deteriorating and increasingly irrelevant actor finds the possibility of renewal in a younger woman in Roth's tight Chekhovian tragedy. At 65, Simon Axler, a formerly celebrated stage actor, is undergoing a crisis: he can no longer act, his wife leaves him and, suicidal, he checks himself into a psych ward. Then he retires to his upstate New York farm to wait for... something, which arrives in the form of Pegeen, daughter of some old theater friends who is now a lithe, full-breasted woman of forty, though with something of a child still in her smile. A Rothian affair ensues, despite (or perhaps because of) their age difference and Pegeen's lesbian past. Axler overlooks all the signs that should warn him not to trust too much in the affair and instead tries out more and more sexual turns with Pegeen (spanking, strap-ons, role play), until one night they pick up a drunk local for a three-way that might prove to be soul-crushing. Roth observes much (about age, success and the sexual credit lovers hold one with another) in little space, and the svelte narrative amounts to an unsparing confrontation of self. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

What happens when a man loses the one thing that defines him as a human being? With nods to Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Shaw, Roth's grim new novel explores this question—with varying success. While the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post praised Roth's elegant writing and caustic wit, other reviewers found the novel superficial and oddly lifeless, citing flat characters, undeveloped plot contrivances, a lack of humor, and a hostile portrayal of homosexuality. Even the graphic sex is "coarse" and "dull," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Though not his best work, The Humbling may appeal to faithful Roth fans; others should pick up one of his earlier novels.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The great Roth has always written both short novels and long novels, choosing a length perfectly suited to what he has to say. Thus, his thirtieth book is brief and perfectly so. Soon into its pages, the reader will recall the title of a famous play about Henry II of England, The Lion in Winter. The lion here, increasingly toothless, is sixtysomething Simon Axler, a famous stage and screen actor. Yes, he’s famous, but now he is so stultified by uncertainty about his talent and how to execute his craft that he can no long perform. His wife flees, and Simon retires to his upstate New York farm, even checking himself into a psychiatric ward for a short stay. Roth does not labor over the man’s distress. Using spare prose, he makes the situation only as poignant as it deserves to be. When Simon takes up with a woman young enough to be his daughter, who is the daughter of old acting friends, Roth again uses concise language to best convey the sadness of what is only a short rehabilitation for Simon, and which ultimately forces his hand in determining how his life will proceed—or not. Roth’s voice, long heard and long appreciated, remains profound. --Brad Hooper

Review

A deteriorating and increasingly irrelevant actor finds the possibility of renewal in a younger woman in Roth''s tight Chekhovian tragedy. At 65, Simon Axler, a formerly celebrated stage actor, is undergoing a crisis: he can no longer act, his wife leaves him and, suicidal, he checks himself into a psych ward. Then he retires to his upstate New York farm to wait for... something, which arrives in the form of Pegeen, daughter of some old theater friends who is now a lithe, full-breasted woman of forty, though with something of a child still in her smile. A Rothian affair ensues, despite (or perhaps because of) their age difference and Pegeen''s lesbian past. Axler overlooks all the signs that should warn him not to trust too much in the affair and instead tries out more and more sexual turns with Pegeen (spanking, strap-ons, role play), until one night they pick up a drunk local for a three-way that might prove to be soul-crushing. Roth observes much (about age, success and the sexual credit lovers hold one with another) in little space, and the svelte narrative amounts to an unsparing confrontation of self. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

<DIV>In 1997, Philip Roth won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. In 1998 he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House and in 2002 the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, previously awarded to John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, and Saul Bellow, among others. He has twice won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has won the PEN/Faulkner Award three times. Recently Roth received PEN's two most prestigious prizes: in 2006 the PEN/Nabokov Award for "a body of work.of enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship" and in 2007 the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for achievement in American Fiction, given to a writer whose "scale of achievement over a sustained career.places him or her in the highest rank of American literature." Roth is the only living American writer to have his work published in a comprehensive, definitive edition by the Library of America. </DIV>

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade; First Edition (October 21, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0547239696
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0547239699
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches

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Philip Roth

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PHILIP ROTH won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral in 1997. In 1998 he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House and in 2002 the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction. He twice won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award three times. In 2005 The Plot Against America received the Society of American Historians’ Prize for “the outstanding historical novel on an American theme for 2003–2004.” Roth received PEN’s two most prestigious awards: in 2006 the PEN/Nabokov Award and in 2007 the PEN/Bellow Award for achievement in American fiction. In 2011 he received the National Humanities Medal at the White House, and was later named the fourth recipient of the Man Booker International Prize. He died in 2018.

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Bruce Gatenby

An Experiment in Happiness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 14, 2009

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"What was remarkable was the frequency with which suicide enters into drama, as though it were a formula fundamental to the drama, not necessarily supported by the action as dictated by the workings of the genre itself."

In the last year, two people I once knew committed suicide. Both were in their forties, both were diagnosed manic depressives, and both were successful in their attempts to leave this life. In The Humbling, Philip Roth considers the connections between the roles we play in life and the desire to take control over death once we realize we can no longer continue to play those roles. I don't know what pushes someone to kill themselves, and I don't want to know. I've taken as many hits as the next guy and I still want to live forever. But as Roth enters his mid seventies, suicide and death are subjects obviously on his mind and so they dominate this short (140 pages) novel, a novel structured more like a three act play, specifically Synge's three act The Playboy of the Western World.

Roth is also a master of the Freudian tension between Thanatos and Eros, and so no sooner does Simon Axler, 65, former actor, decide to prepare for suicide by re-reading all the great plays, like The Seagull, in which characters commit suicide (and the list is impressive) than Eros enters in the form of Pegeen Mike Stapleford, the 40 year old lesbian daughter of his friends Carol and Asa. Simon is sure he's finished with everything: acting, women, happiness, life, and is holed up in his farmhouse ready to pull the trigger when Eros arrives on stage for The Transformation. Pegeen has come out of a six-year relationship, one of adventure, world travel, and "rapturous rapport" that, after a few years, slowly drifted into the boredom of domestic life in Bozeman, Montana, ending when her lover decides to undergo a sex change operation. She reenters Simon's life, decides to reorient her sexual role, and Simon rediscovers happiness.

Roth's point is how when we pursue what we want, our possibilities change dramatically, and how when we don't--when we get scared, when we try to protect ourselves by withdrawing from the risk--well, our possibilities also change dramatically. Simon and Pegeen are both transformed by their experiment in happiness, and those around them are transformed as well, although made decidedly unhappy, especially Pegeen's parents and her ex-girlfriend, the dean of the Vermont school where she now teaches. Mom and Dad condemn her relationship with a man twenty-five years older than her, the dean stalks her, and this being a Philip Roth novel, sex brings the strange and unforeseen into Simon's life. Relationships, like life, are role-playing and Simon has fooled himself that both he and Pegeen can assume different roles from the ones they've always played. Yes, risk and rejuvenation come with new possibilities, but there's always a price to pay for attempting an experiment in happiness.

Roth makes this one look effortless, although his explanation for suicide is too literary for real life. Still, The Humbling is a small slice of brilliance by America's finest writer. The Humbling left me hungry for more, and I hope Roth has at least one bigger slice of brilliance left in him. We'll see when Nemesis is published next year.

[...]

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Clarissa's Blog

Roth Finally Speaks Out Against Sexism

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 12, 2010

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While Philip Roth's latest novel The Humbling is definitely not on the same level as his earlier masterpieces American Pastoral and The Human Stain, its is still pretty good. Written in Roth's luminous style, The Humbling tells a story of Simon Axler, an aging actor who loses his capacity to act and is plunged into a depression as a result. His wife leaves him, and Axler sees himself as condemned to loneliness for the rest of his days. Then, he starts an affair with Pegeen, a lesbian who is 25 years younger than he is. When Pegeen gets bored with their relationship and leaves, Axler is devastated.

This novel offers a profound critique of the male chauvinist way of thinking and of the problems it causes to the men who try to hold on to the obsolete macho ideology. Axler treats Pegeen as a voiceless, malleable doll, who needs to be transformed into a version of womanhood he considers to be acceptable: "All he was doing was helping Pegeen to be a woman he would want instead of a woman another woman would want." Understandably, his efforts to "cure" Pegeen from being a lesbian through fancy clothes and expensive jewelry fail.

In his efforts to analyze his relationship with an independent, self-sufficient, intellectual woman from the vantage point of outdated chauvinistic beliefs, Axler makes himself look utterly pathetic. he expects Pegeen's parents to be happy about their daughter's relationship with him because he is rich and can 'take care of her', whatever that means: "Here is this eminent man with a lot of money who's going to take care of her. After all, she's not getting any younger herself. She settles down with someone who's achieved something in life - what's so wrong with that?" Later on, Axler expresses a belief that Pegeen is involved with him because of his erstwhile fame as an actor.

Axler forgets that, unlike decades ago, an educated professional woman has no need to be with a person of any age or any gender because of money, the imaginary need "to settle down," or because she needs anybody to take care of her. What Axler fails to understand - and what costs him very dearly in the end - is that Pegeen's only reason to be with him (or with anybody else) is her desire. Gone are the times when women like Pegeen needed to attach themselves to an older man for prestige, money, or protection. Today, a woman who makes her own living can choose the sexual partner(s) she wants based on nothing but her own feelings and desires.

Pegeen is not the only woman Axler misjudges on the basis of his outdated sexist beliefs. Sybil, a woman he meets in a hospital, is for him "helpless, frail, and child-like." He misunderstands Sybil's inner strength and determination and ends up completely clueless about her.

In his long career as a writer, Roth often was criticized for the sexism of his novels. In my opinion, The Humbling is the writer's attempt to atone novelistically for that.

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Keith M

Short And Sweet

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 6, 2020

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Short, certainly – running to 140 pages this 2009 work, Roth’s penultimate, is really a novella – but perhaps not sweet, as The Humbling’s tale of 65-year old actor Simon Axler’s is another tragic Roth take on life catching up with you (and perhaps overtaking you!). As a piece of Roth fiction, this short work was never really going to compete with the epic nature of novels like American Pastoral, The Human Stain or Sabbath’s Theatre, but, in terms of its writing style (Roth’s prose was on a never-ending upward trajectory until 'the end’) – simple, but impassioned – its perceptive take on the modern world and its succinctness, it is probably as good as anything I’ve read by this author. Roth weaves into his short tale of Axler’s failing career ('actor’s block’) some heartfelt sympathy – via the episode with a vulnerable woman traumatised by a child-abusing husband – plus hints at a positive future – via Axler’s seemingly life-affirming relationship with a 'reformed’ lesbian – getting deep inside the psyche of his flawed protagonist and cleverly (and devastatingly) playing on the 'life imitating art’ theme. The Humbling sits alongside Roth’s other late, 'short’ novels, Everyman, Indignation and Nemesis, forming an impressive quartet of works which serve to act as a crowning achievement to the author’s illustrious career.

One person found this helpful

Marina C. Watteck

Very fine work....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 24, 2010

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Who says that a book must have more than 200 pages to qualify as a "good novel" when Philip Roth is able to tell a great story in less than 150 pages. "The Humbling" is one of the most honest works I have ever read on love, ageing and failure. I could not put it down, although it is rather clear from page one, where this story is leading, Roth's language is so intriguing and fascinating, that I was drawn into this book. Suffice to say, that every year when Philip Roth is NOT rewarded with the Nobel-prize, I go ballistic!

Maggie Stanfield

A microcosm of human despair

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 26, 2013

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Yes, I do think that AmericanPastoral ought to be required reading but this little elegy to human unhappiness ought to be too. Please read. It is also, by the way, incredibly erotic.