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. (20090810)
Had "The Humbling" been submitted to an agent by a first time (or otherwise average) novelist, I doubt it would have picked up representation, let alone been published by a major press. This is minor Roth, at best. It starts off in a situation Roth has opened up with in other recent novels such as "Everyman" and "Exit Ghost": a man past middle age, contemplating his past, examining the failures of his current incarnation, and looking at life's end. And like these two novels, it heads down a predictable direction: the older man is involved in an intense sexual relationship with a much younger woman, who comes with plenty of her own psychological and sexual baggage.
There was nothing in this book that surprised me, delighted me and looked at our familiar world in new ways, such as Roth has done in so many superior novels. In recent years (and by that I mean the past 15), "The Human Stain," "I Married a Communist," "American Pastoral," "The Dying Animal," and "The Plot Against America" have shown Roth at his finest, a novelist who understands his art and the need to constantly challenge his talents.
"The Humbling," on the other hand, is a lackluster novella. At 140 pages, it's a quick read that feels padded out with page after page of pseudo-erotic scenes. Torn out of the name "Roth," the mindless pornography of the writing feels forced and silly; the work of a lazy writer who enjoys writing hot, steamy over-the-top sex scenes chockablock filled with dirty words and sleaze misguidedly labeled as something literary.
The opening shows promise as we meet the main character, a deeply depressed actor despairing that his once-great talents have vaporized. From there, "The Humbling" quickly degenerates into mindless and unimaginative blatherings, scene after scene of the failed actor and his younger companion. It feels like something dashed off, rather than written. This is not a book the novelist labored over; rather, it feels like the output of a tired individual still trying to develop characters and maintain his reputation as a master of sexual anxiety.
But it doesn't work and in fact feels sad with the lack of effort and artistry sadly permeating the words.
The Humbling takes our anti-hero on a journey of despair to redemption and back. I'm afraid to say that that journey is mirrored in the reader's experience. It traverses tired terrain (artistically impotent old guy-younger woman relationship leading to disaster) in an unengaged and unengaging manner, lacking, almost completely, the master's beautiful prose and crystelline insight into human motivation. I cannot fathom why HMH decided to release such inferiority on the heels of the last few brillaint late works. A real letdown for a real fan.
'The Humbling' is the latest installment in the late Rothian oeuvre. After a brief detour into youth territory in 'Indignation', Roth is now back at it exploring once again the trials and tribulations of later life. This time we have Simon Axler, an aging Broadway star who has lost his gift. His days of Macbeth and Vanya are behind him. His last engagement at the Kennedy Center was a disaster. He is deeply depressed and checks himself into a psychiatric hospital for a month. His wife leaves him. He suffers from back pain. After leaving the hospital we find him living the hermit's life on his large upstate New York farm. One day Pegeen, a woman twenty-five years his junior arrives. She is the child of two of Simon's actor friends. In fact he remembers Pegeen suckling at her mother's breast when he visited the hospital at the time of her birth. Pegeen, who has been a lesbian all of her life throws over her lover, of course, for Simon. Simon than proceeds to live out two male fantasies - turning a lesbian to a new team, and a menage-a-trois. For some reason the forty year old Pegeen seems overly concerned with her parents feelings towards changing teams and taking up with the older Simon. The denouement is totally predictable. Come on Roth, how about something new?
