The Human Stain: Difference between revisions

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'''''The Human Stain''''' (2000) is a novel by [[Philip Roth]]. It is set in late 1990s rural [[New England]]. Its first person [[narrator]] is 65-year-old author [[Nathan Zuckerman]], a character in previous Roth novels, including ''[[American Pastoral]]'' (1997) and ''[[I Married a Communist]]'' (1998); these two books form a loose trilogy with ''The Human Stain''.<ref name="salon">{{cite web |first=Charles |last=Taylor |url=http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/04/24/roth/index.html |title=Life and life only |date=April 24, 2000 |publisher=[[Salon.com]] }}</ref> Zuckerman acts largely as an observer rather than the [[protagonist]] of the novel.
'''''The Human Stain''''' (2000) is a novel by [[Philip Roth]]. It is set in late 1990s rural [[New England]]. Its first person [[narrator]] is 65-year-old author [[Nathan Zuckerman]], a character in previous Roth novels, including ''[[American Pastoral]]'' (1997) and ''[[I Married a Communist]]'' (1998); these two books form a loose trilogy with ''The Human Stain''.<ref name="salon">{{cite web |first=Charles |last=Taylor |url=http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/04/24/roth/index.html |title=Life and life only |date=April 24, 2000 |publisher=[[Salon.com]] }}</ref> Zuckerman acts largely as an observer rather than the [[protagonist]] of the novel.

Salon.com critic Charles Taylor argues that Roth had to have been at least partly inspired by the case of [[Anatole Broyard]], a literary critic who, like the protagonist of ''The Human Stain'', was a man identified as [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]] who spent his entire professional life more-or-less as [[white people|white]].<ref name="salon"/> Roth states there is no connection, as he did not know Broyard had any black ancestry until an article published months after he had started writing his novel.<ref>[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aw9u2ESpnFN0&refer=muse Philip Roth interview at bloomberg.com]</ref>


''The Human Stain'' was a national bestseller; it was adapted as [[The Human Stain (film)|a film by the same name]], released in 2003 and starring [[Anthony Hopkins]], [[Nicole Kidman]], and [[Gary Sinise]].
''The Human Stain'' was a national bestseller; it was adapted as [[The Human Stain (film)|a film by the same name]], released in 2003 and starring [[Anthony Hopkins]], [[Nicole Kidman]], and [[Gary Sinise]].

Revision as of 15:47, 20 August 2012

The Human Stain
First edition cover
AuthorPhilip Roth
Cover artistMichaela Sullivan
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherHoughton Mifflin
Publication date
May 2000
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages352 pp
ISBN0-618-05945-8
OCLC43109968
813/.54 21
LC ClassPS3568.O855 H8 2000

The Human Stain (2000) is a novel by Philip Roth. It is set in late 1990s rural New England. Its first person narrator is 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, a character in previous Roth novels, including American Pastoral (1997) and I Married a Communist (1998); these two books form a loose trilogy with The Human Stain.[1] Zuckerman acts largely as an observer rather than the protagonist of the novel.

The Human Stain was a national bestseller; it was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 2003 and starring Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, and Gary Sinise.

Synopsis

The Human Stain is set in the 1990s United States. The story is told by Nathan Zuckerman, a writer who lives a secluded life where Coleman Silk is his neighbor. Silk is a classics professor and dean of faculty at Athena College, a fictional institution in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. At 71, Silk is unjustly accused of racism by two black students, because of referring to them as "spooks", since they had never shown up in his seminar: "Do they exist or are they spooks?" Having never seen the students, Silk did not know they were black when he made the comment. The uproar eventually leads to Silk's resignation and soon after, to the death of his wife Iris. Silk starts an affair with one of the school's janitors, Faunia Farley, a 34-year-old woman married to an abusive Vietnam veteran. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Coleman Silk is an African-American man who had been presenting himself as a Jewish man.

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