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Everyman

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About this listen

 Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, 2007.

There is no more decorated American writer living today than Philip Roth, the New York Times best-selling author of American Pastoral, The Human Stain, and The Plot Against America. He has won a Pulitzer Prize, two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, and numerous other distinctions.

The hero of Everyman is obsessed with mortality. As he reminds himself at one point, "I'm 34! Worry about oblivion when you're 75." But he cannot help himself. He is the ex-husband in three marriages gone wrong. He is the father of two sons who detest him, despite a daughter who adores him. And as his health worsens, he is the envious brother of a much fitter man. A masterful portrait of one man's inner struggles, Everyman is a brilliant showcase for one of the world's most distinguished novelists.

©2006 Philip Roth (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC. Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Jewish Literary Fiction World Literature Biography Marriage

Critic reviews

  • 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award, Fiction
"Roth continues exercising his career-defining, clear-eyed, intelligent vision of how the psychology of families works." ( Booklist)
"This is an artful yet surprisingly readable treatise on...well, on being human....Through it all, there's that Rothian voice: pained, angry, arrogant, and deeply, wryly funny." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Our most accomplished novelist. . . . [With Everyman] personal tenderness has reached a new intensity." ( The New Yorker)
All stars
Most relevant
Emotional, real performance. Sensitive and honest. A brilliant story very well told. Very enjoyable, almost like listening to a play. Roth' s language is so vivid , so creative and precise. Beautiful!

a perfect book for audio

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Through the telling of one man's life you are challenged to see the absurdity, shame, joy, and wonder of your own.

Very short in the reading but will stay with you for long after. Worth a read

A picture of a messy and complicated life

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Beautifully written story published in 2006 about life, death, family, loyalty, illness, and more. Loving descriptions of family relationships, adultery and disloyalty, truth and trust. Especially moving segments on hospitals and doctors, friends, death and the Jewish cemetery and funeral service. The terrible thud of the first clods of soil placed on the wooden coffin by the close family members is accurately and beautifully described.

Days before the narrator's death, he places $100 in the hand of a black grave-digger, thanks him for being so dedicated and taking such care over his important work, as well as caring for the graves he had dug earlier for his parents.He recounts a frequent comment of his father's - "Better to give with a warm hand".

Four hours of transportation into the family, mind, home and challenges of Middle-American secular Jewish ageing lives, preparing for and the inevitability of death.

Vintage Roth, slow, sensitive, moving

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Brilliantly written but filled with rather depressing truths. One of those books you probably should read, but at the right time of life. Quite what that time is, I'm not sure. Likely to take the shine off youth, to depress the middle-aged and to scare the life out of the elderly and sick.

caution

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This is a sombre, powerful novel,a moving portrayal of how, an ordinary, flawed man -hence Everyman - faces death. Enjoyment would perhaps not be the appropriae word for such a theme but I found this novel a gripping and worthwhile experience. Roth is a most skilful writer and the reading by George Guidall is finely judged.Compelling listening - if you are prepared to think about your own mortality.

An eye that hath kept watch o'er man's mortality

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