The Humbling

Resumen del libro

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 on stage 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 the bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not towards comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long days journey into night, told with Roths inimitable urgency, bravura and gravity, all the ways that we persuade ourselves of our solidity, all our lifes performances - talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation - are stripped off.

Following the dark meditations on mortality and endings in Everyman and Exit Ghost, and the bitterly ironic retrospect on youth and chance in Indignation, Roth has written another in his haunting group of late novels.

The Humbling is Roths thirtieth book.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P x{0026}lt;B Philip Roth x{0026}lt;/B (1933-2018) va obtenir el Premi Pulitzer el 1997 amb x{0026}lt;I Pastoral Americanax{0026}lt;/I . El 1998 va rebre la Medalla Nacional de les Arts a la Casa Blanca i, el 2002, el màxim guardó de l'Acadèmia Americana de les Arts i les Lletres, la Medalla d'Or de Narrativa, prèviament atorgada a John Dos Passos, William Faulkner i Saul Bellow, entre altres. Ha estat guardonat dues vegades amb el National Book Award, el PEN/Faulkner Award i el National Book Critics Circle Award.x{0026}lt;/P x{0026}lt;P El 2005, x{0026}lt;I La conjura contra Amèricax{0026}lt;/I va rebre el premi de la Society of American Historians, concedit a la seva destacada novel-la històrica el 2003-2004 sobre un tema històric nord-americà , i el Premi W.H. Smith pel millor llibre de l'any, fet que va fer de Roth el primer escriptor que premiat dues vegades amb aquest guardó en els quaranta-sis anys d'història del premi.x{0026}lt;/P x{0026}lt;P El 2005 Roth es va convertir en el tercer escriptor nord-americà viu, l'obra del qual va publicar la Library of America en una edició completa i definitiva. El 2011 va rebre la National Humanities Medal a la Casa Blanca, i va ser nomenat posteriorment el quart guanyador del Man Booker International Prize. El 2012 va guanyar el màxim guardó d'Espanya, el Premi Príncep d'Astúries, i el 2013 el de més prestigi de França, el Comandant de la Legió d'Honor.x{0026}lt;/P