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Search - The Human Stain
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The Human Stain Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Audio Cassette (Abridged), Hardcover
Book Description:
It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small New England town, an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is a lie, but the real truth about Silk would have astonished even his most virulent accuser.
Coleman Silk has a secret, one which has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the larger public history of modern America."
Coleman Silk has a secret, one which has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the larger public history of modern America."
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Top Member Book Reviews
Jo Anne C. (
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
It took a good 60 pages into this book before I really got interested in it. The main character isn't the most admirable and there didn't seem to be enough happening to make it interesting. After those first 60 pages of exposition, however, the book lured me in with its twists and turns and surprises. You never know exactly where the story is taking you and what you'll learn. By the end of the book, I wanted to read it again. It accurately captures our world, how we are shaped by it and how we shape it.
Edward F. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
The woman at work who recommended this book to me has never missed yet. This is the story of an aging professor at a small New England college who makes an offhand remark about a couple of students cutting his class that is inadvertently taken as racist. He himself is black but since his youth has covered up his race and because of his light pigmentation has been accepted as a white man, much to the chagrin of his family. An oddball story but it is a very good book. You will not be disappointed.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Although the story was pretty good, it moved rather slowly. Several plot points were a little unbeleivable. Still, I read the whole thing, which means it was at least pretty good.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Quite possibly the best book I have ever read. The language is incredible and the story poignant. The historical and social contexts the story is weaved in gives the story a 3-dimensional quality only Roth is able to achieve.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Amazing plot and character development. Very slow at times.
Tracy S. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I really liked this book -- so much to talk about. It's a great view into perceptions and societal expectations & hypocracy.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Professor Coleman Silk is such an intriguing character. His story grips the reader from the very start. The reader is pulled into the world of college academia where a black professor who has "passed for white" all his adult life is accused of being a racist towards blacks. A truly unforgettable read!
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Fascinating look at the life of disgraced aging classics professor who has lived a life-long lie. Only flaws are a couple of worthless subplots.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
One of the best books and best-written books I've ever read.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award, story about a married professor and an affair with a cleaning lady.
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
This was a very captivating book. The themes are fresh and unique. I've really never read another book like this. It is so ironic that the protagonist makes a decision to reject his African-American heritage to ive his life as a white male so that he can control his destiny but in the end the fact that he is known as a white male throws his life into chaos and, ultimately, destroys it. At times the book goes into stream of conciousness writing that I found to be a bit long and tedious but otherwise the book is just extremely interesting.
I had to TRY to get interested in this book. It is very slow to get going, and isnt in a great chapter format. If you are going to read it, read it rather quickly, so as not forget where you left off.
If you run in circles where heavy-hitting books are bandied about at lively cocktail parties, then you'll definitely want to make sure you've got The Human Stain checked off the list. Had it been less pedantic & preachy, I would definitely have enjoyed it more, but like most "serious" American authors, Roth takes himself too...seriously (which is why Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Tolstoy & Bulgakov rate so highly in my book: they know how to tell an insightful, "important" tale with humor & a light touch). Brace yourself for lengthy, erudite-to-pretentious passages that make you want to shout "yes, you're SMART already!!" along with some extremely touching and insightful passages, in particular, the one from which the book derives its title.
The cover design on this book is different. But this is the correct isbn.
Written by one of the best American authors today, the book won the Pen/Faulkner Award. Character development and magnificent writing always characterize Roth's work.
A prestigious professor is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is lie, but the real truth about Professor Silk would astonish his most virulent accuser. For he has a secret, one which he has kept for 50 years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues and his friends. Winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award . Pulitzer prize-winning author of American Pastoral.
Coleman Silk, an aging classics professor, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is a lie, but the real truth about Silk would astonish his most virulent accuser.
Read All Book Reviews of "The Human Stain"
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