Saturday, September 08, 2007

Eluding Death the Business of Life

Philip Roth’s short book, Everyman, is about the darker side of old age.

The central character endures a retirement in which he is becoming weaker through ill health, despondency and loneliness (even though he had been the life of the party). Now, there isn’t a year that goes when he isn’t hospitalized.

The author writes that “eluding death seemed to have become the central business of his life and bodily decay his entire story.” (p71)

A review of this book can be found at this link:

Philip Roth, Everyman (London: Jonathan Cape, 2006).

Image: “and bodily decay his entire story.”