| The Human Stain | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Philip Roth |
|---|---|
| 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 |
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. 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 variously identified as Creole or black who spent his entire professional life more-or-less passing as white.[1]. Roth however states there is no connection as he only learned about Broyard being black from a New Yorker article published months after he started writing the novel.[2]
The Human Stain was a national bestseller and was made into a film in 2003 starring Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman.
Contents |
Synopsis
The Human Stain is set in 1990s America, the time of the culture wars, political correctness and the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. The story is told by Nathan Zuckerman, a writer who lives a secluded life until Coleman Silk becomes his new 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 falls victim to an unjustified charge of racism against two black students, whom he calls "spooks" because they had never shown up in his seminar: "Do they exist or are they spooks?" This incident 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 who was married to an alcoholic, drug-addicted, abusive and disturbed Vietnam veteran. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Coleman Silk has been living a lie for most of his life: he is actually a light-skinned black man passing as white and Jewish.
Awards
Winner
- New York Times "Editors' Choice" (2000)[3]
- Koret Jewish Book Award (2000)[4]
- Chicago Tribune Editor's Pick (2000)[4]
- WH Smith Literary Award (2001)[4]
- National Jewish Book Award (2001)[4]
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (2001)[5]
Finalist
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction (2000).[6]
- L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award (2001)[4]
References
- ^ a b Taylor, Charles (April 24, 2000). "Life and life only". Salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2000/04/24/roth/index.html.
- ^ Philip Roth interview at bloomberg.com
- ^ NY Times' Editors' Choices of 2000
- ^ a b c d e "The Human Stain: Awards". Houghton Mifflin. http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?textType=awards&titleNumber=682684. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
- ^ PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Winners 1996–2006
- ^ LA Times book awards (press release)
External links
- The Human Stain at AwardAnnals.com
- Yale English video lecture on The Human Stain
- The Human Stain at Random House's Reading Group Center page
- The Human Stain at Houghton Mifflin - list of awards
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