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The Human Stain 1

The Human Stain

First edition cover

Author(s)

Cover artist Michaela Sullivan

Country United States

Language English

Genre(s) Novel

Publisher Houghton Mifflin

Publication date May 2000

Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)

Pages 352 pp

ISBN 0-618-05945-8

[1] OCLC Number 43109968

Dewey Decimal 813/.54 21

LC Classification PS3568.O855 H8 2000

The Human Stain (2000) is a novel by Philip Roth set in late 1990s rural New England. Its first person narrator is 65-year-old author , who appeared in previous Roth novels, including (1997) and I Married a Communist (1998); these two books form a loose trilogy with The Human Stain.[2] Zuckerman acts largely as an observer rather than the protagonist of the novel. A national bestseller, The Human Stain was adapted as a film by the same name directed by Robert Benton. Released in 2003, the film starred Anthony Hopkins, , and Gary Sinise.

Synopsis The Human Stain is set in the 1998 United States, during the period of President 's impeachment hearings and scandal over . It is the third of Roth's postwar novels that take on large social themes.[3] The story is told by Nathan Zuckerman, a writer who lives a secluded life in New England, where Coleman Silk is his neighbor. Silk is a former classics professor and dean of faculty at Athena College, a fictional institution in the Berkshires of western . At 71, Silk is accused of by two black students because of referring to them as "spooks". As they have never shown up in his seminar, he asks: "Do they exist or are they spooks?" Having never seen the students, Silk does not know they are black when he makes the comment. The uproar leads to Silk's resignation. Soon after, his wife Iris dies of a stroke, which Silk feels is caused by the stress of his being forced out. Silk begins an affair with Faunia Farley, a 34-year-old local woman who works as a janitor at the college and is married to an abusive Vietnam veteran. Silk is criticized by feminist scholars at the college for this. Zuckerman gradually learns that Silk is an African-American who has presented himself as Jewish (and white) since a stint in the Navy, completing graduate school, marrying and having four children. (He never told his wife and children of his ancestry.) As Roth wrote in the novel, Silk chose "to take the future into his own hands rather than to leave it to an unenlightened society to determine his fate".[3] The Human Stain 2

Reception The novel was well received, became a national bestseller, and won numerous awards. In choosing it for its "Editors' Choice" list of 2000, wrote: "When Zuckerman and Silk are together and testing each other, Roth's writing reaches an emotional intensity and a vividness not exceeded in any of his books. The American dream of starting over entirely new has the force of inevitability here, and Roth's judgment clearly is that you can never make it all the way. There is no comfort in this vision, but the tranquility Zuckerman achieves as he tells the story is infectious, and that is a certain reward.[4] The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani wrote: "It is a book that shows how the public Zeitgeist can shape, even destroy, an individual's life, a book that takes all of Roth's favorite themes of identity and rebellion and generational strife and refracts them not through the narrow prism of the self but through a wide-angle lens that exposes the fissures and discontinuities of 20th-century life... When stripped of its racial overtones, Roth's book echoes a story he has told in novel after novel. Indeed, it closely parallels the story of Nathan Zuckerman, himself another dutiful, middle-class boy from who rebelled against his family and found himself exiled, "unbound" as it were, from his roots.[3]

Inspiration Roth wrote in 2012 that the book was inspired "by an unhappy event in the life of my late friend Melvin Tumin, professor of sociology at Princeton for some thirty years".[5] Roth explained that Tumin had noticed two students enrolled in one of his courses had never attended class. At mid-semester he asked the class about the missing students, saying "Does anyone know these people? Do they exist or are they spooks?" Roth wrote: Almost immediately Mel was summoned by university authorities to justify his use of the word "spooks," since the two missing students, as it happened, were both African-American, and "spooks" at one time in America was a pejorative designation for blacks, spoken venom milder than "nigger" but intentionally degrading nonetheless. A witch hunt ensued during the following months from which Professor Tumin—rather like Professor Silk in "The Human Stain"—emerged blameless but only after he had to provide a number of lengthy depositions declaring himself innocent of the charge of hate speech... This "spooks" event is the initiating incident of "The Human Stain". It is the core of the book. There is no novel without it. There is no Coleman Silk without it. Every last thing we learn about Coleman Silk over the course of three hundred and sixty-one pages begins with his unwarranted persecution for having uttered "spooks" aloud in a college classroom.[5]

Awards

Winner • New York Times "Editors' Choice" (2000)[4] • Koret Jewish Book Award (2000)[6] • Chicago Tribune Editor's Pick (2000)[6] • WH Smith Literary Award (2001)[6] • National Jewish Book Award (2001)[6] • PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (2001)[7] • Prix Médicis étranger; Meilleur livre de l'année 2002 The Human Stain 3

Finalist • Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction (2000).[8] • L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award (2001)[6]

References

[1] http:/ / worldcat. org/ oclc/ 43109968

[2] Taylor, Charles (April 24, 2000). "Life and life only" (http:/ / archive. salon. com/ books/ feature/ 2000/ 04/ 24/ roth/ index. html). Salon.com. .

[3] Michiko Kakutani, "Confronting the Failures of a Professor Who Passes" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ library/ books/

050200roth-book-review. html), New York Times, 2 May 2000, accessed 20 August 2012

[4] "Editors' Choice" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ books/ 00/ 12/ 03/ reviews/ 001203. 03editort. html?_r=1), New York Times, 2 December 2000, accessed 20 August 2012

[5] Philip Roth (2012-09-07). "An open letter to Wikipedia" (http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ online/ blogs/ books/ 2012/ 09/

an-open-letter-to-wikipedia. htm). . . Retrieved 7 September 2012.

[6] "The Human Stain: Awards" (http:/ / www. houghtonmifflinbooks. com/ catalog/ titledetail. cfm?textType=awards& titleNumber=682684). Houghton Mifflin. . Retrieved 2008-03-28. ""This complex novel about 'dissembling and impersonation is the work of a remarkable creative intelligence,' added Alvin H. Rosen.""

[7] PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Winners 1996–2006 (http:/ / www. penfaulkner. org/ affWinners02. htm)

[8] LA Times Book Awards (http:/ / www. latimes. com/ extras/ festivalofbooks/ newsreleases/ print_2001_06. html), Los Angeles Times, press release, June 2001

External links

• The Human Stain at Random House's Reading Group Center page (http:/ / www. randomhouse. com/ vintage/

read/ humanstain/ )

• Awards: The Human Stain (http:/ / www. houghtonmifflinbooks. com/ catalog/ titledetail.

cfm?textType=awards& titleNumber=682684), Houghton Mifflin

• "Philip Roth's open letter to Wikipedia" – Sept 7, 2012 (http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ online/ blogs/ books/

2012/ 09/ an-open-letter-to-wikipedia. html), New Yorker Blog 'Page Turner' Article Sources and Contributors 4 Article Sources and Contributors

The Human Stain Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=511373075 Contributors: 2001:638:504:F212:223:54FF:FE09:8450, AKGhetto, Aaron Brenneman, After Midnight, Alteripse, Andre Engels, Andromeda, Andycjp, Aristophanes68, AshcroftIleum, Azucar, BD2412, Babajobu, Bali ultimate, Bantman, Barrywolfe, Bearcat, Boomright, Bryan Derksen, CWii, Calieber, Cherkash, Chocolateboy, CloudSurfer, Cybercobra, D Monack, Darkonc, Darrenhusted, Darwinek, David Gerard, Dproyal, Dwchin, Easter Monkey, EconoPhysicist, Educatedlady, Elizabennet, Emergentchaos, Enchanter, Eric82oslo, Evb-wiki, Fabrice Florin (WMF), Fishwristwatch, Fredericknoronha, GHcool, Gabbe, Gebrah, Gibu41, Gobshite, Grey Shadow, Gunnar Hendrich, Hmains, Hotlorp, Hoverfish, Hu12, IKR1, Inoculatedcities, Ixfd64, JHP, JPX7, JackBarney, Jleybov, John, Jprg1966, Jweiss11, K1Bond007, KF, Kevinalewis, Kizor, Kusma, LGagnon, Lady Aleena, Lexi Marie, Luk, Lupin, Madmedea, MantisEars, MaskedSheik, Mick gold, MovieMadness, MrDarcy, Muriel Gottrop, Nasa-verve, NiTenIchiRyu, Node ue, Old Right, Olivier, P.D., Parkwells, PhS, PhilHibbs, Purgatory Fubar, QuizzicalBee, R Lowry, RedWolf, Reflex Reaction, Rich Farmbrough, Robertvan1, Ronhjones, Rrburke, Ryulong, S.R. Heller, ScudLee, Selbymayfair, ShelfSkewed, Sholtar, Silver seren, SiobhanHansa, StefanWirz, Stotr, Sylvain1972, Szquirrel, Template namespace initialisation script, Testu, Tony Sidaway, Tonytula, Torourkeus, Treybien, Trivialist, User A1, Verne Equinox, Vicki Rosenzweig, Vox Rationis, Vtseng, WaitingForConnection, Wapcaplet, Webmgr, Wmahan, Wukai, Wy125, 93 anonymous edits License

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