Documentation of literary Documentary Fiction

Die Europäischen Literaturtage 2013 diskutierten den Bereich des dokumentarischen Romans. Das dazu eröffnete Archiv versammelt Buchempfehlungen von readme.cc Usern. Besprechungen, die unter dem Stichwort "Roman" abgespeichert werden, erweitern das Archiv

[ book tip by Ann Morgan ] What would you do if at the centre of your whole life there was a secret? A secret so fundamental that it would change everything about you if it were ever known? A secret that you had kept for fifty years?

For Coleman Silk, the protagonist of Philip Roth's masterful The Human Stain, the answer is simple: say nothing. A successful university lecturer coming to the end of his career, he continues his well-ordered, ostensibly dull existence against the backdrop of America in the late nineteen-nineties. Whilst President Clinton faces impeachment for lying about his sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, Coleman drives to and from work, teaches his classes and, oh yes, conducts an affair with a woman half his age whose jealous ex-husband wants him dead.

But that is not the secret. Oh no, it takes a lot more than that to ruffle the feathers of the academic who boxed semi-professionally in his youth. Indeed, it is not until a student accuses him of racism and the continuance of his respectable career is thrown in doubt that the threads of Coleman Silk's existence really start to unravel.

Flawlessly plotted with a breathtaking raft of characters, The Human Stain delights, shocks and expands the mind. It will snatch you up, sweep you along and leave you exhilarated at the end, marvelling that writing can be this powerful, this good.

[ book info ] Roth, Philip: The Human Stain.