Classics Book Club of NY
Classics Book Club of NY
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Philip Roth. The Dying Animal. (2001). "One of the coolest titles. Who or what is the dying animal? The narrator? His libido? Consuela? George? Time (the end of the millenium)? Janie's 'sexual revolution'? Us (as the reader being spoken for at the end of the book)?" -Eric "The phrase (dying animal) is from Yeats, as quoted
on p. 102" -Randy
"Roth's choice of the 'Dying Animal' name for his novel might have reference to several possible subjects, as Eric points out. But are any of them well developed? The millenium theme is pretty much an afterthought, it seems to me. I see Kepish much like I view the author - an unhappily aging, devious, selfish, loveless, sadistic, post adolescent who learns little in the few pages available to him. The supposed major conflict presented at the novel's end is a nice start for Kepish, but it lacks dramatic import. True, the novel is a titillating glimpse into a type of person many of us (men) still envy in part, though we manage to grow out of. But is it worth spending more than a short time on? If we're focusing on man's relationship to sex, I much prefer 'Lolita' Even 'Tropic of Cancer' is more meaty" -Ken "...perhaps it is just that my choice (The Dying Animal) is so immediately and intensely interesting that one simply cannot WAIT until Apr. 10" -Randy "I think that the title is just a way of defining and describing the human condition. I think Roth’s use of a sexual theme is his way of avoiding any of the higher order (or spiritual entanglements) of mankind. In fact the only time we get to see love in the non-physical sense is when George O’Hearn is actually dying. I guess we do catch a glimpse of it with Consuela’s breast cancer at the end of the book. Perhaps that is the point. When the soul asserts supremacy, the animal in us dies." -Larry
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