Rating: 
Summary: It never leaves the ground
Review: There is something marvelous about reading the work of a superb writer at the peak of his form, and Roth's prose is so delicious one is hard put to criticize this work; yet "The Human Stain" must be criticized because it has many fundamental failures; so many, in fact, that in the end the book fails to convince or to satisfy.The author starts testing the contract with his readers by asking us to believe in this hardly credible platform: a perfect black child, valedictorian of his class, great athlete, superb boxer (unbeknownst to his family), intellecually brilliant, without racial hangups, with green eyes and a skin white enought to "pass," aims for and succeeds in a brilliant career in academia with a specialty in Greek and Roman classics, all along pretending to be a Jew. Well, maybe. In the course of the book the contract is further encumbered by dozens of improbable details, unlikely coincidences, and unbelievable misunderstandings (which cannot be cited here without interfering with the enjoyment of the book by others), until one can no longer participate in the suspension of belief the writer asks from us. The big picture that undelies this novel is surely not believable; but the details? Ah, the details are masterfully drawn, so that the reader proceeds, no longer trusting the ground on which he is stepping, but loving the meticulously crafted scenery that strokes and lulls all his senses so precisely. There is much to learn and to love in those details, even if the plot fundamentally fails. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would not want to have deprive myself of its many pleasures. If in the end I was left unsatisfied, it was because it had an effect similar to that encountered in a flight simulator: one receives the milliard sensory imputs, and one's body and mind reacts realistically to the flight conditions; but one leaves the machine knowing full well that it never got off the ground. This book will not fly you, either, although at times you will feel for sure that you are in the air.
Rating:
Summary: Roth the Misogynist
Review: I hadn't read Roth in years until I happened upon "American Pastoral," which I thought was a truly great novel. I subsequently blitzed through "I Married A Communist," an early Roth titled "When She Was Good," and then "The Human Stain." Unfortunately, now I'm convinced Roth has a serious female problem. In all of these books, even "Pastoral," it's a woman who leads to a man's downfall. And the portraits of these women - harridan-like, shrewish, conniving - is no accident. Roth must obviously feel he's been wronged by the opposite sex - "Communist" is an obvious attempt to get back at Claire Bloom for her tell-all memoir - and is determined to fight back the only way he knows how. But that's not the only problem with "The Human Stain." Its portrayal of a deranged Vietnam Veteran is the ultimate cliche. And the central character's dilemma - he's a black man passing for white - seems anachronistic, to say the least. Roth can still write a mean sentence, which is why I'll give his latest three stars. Otherwise, this is pretty much a reactionary waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: This Should Get Roth the Nobel
Review: This scalding book is a fitting sum of Roth's career to date. If there is any justice in this world, he will get the next Nobel prize. Simply unforgettable.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing end to a trilogy.
Review: Philip Roth's Human Stain shocked me, not with its subject-matter, which I think is by now well known, but by its often amateurish construction. If I didn't know the author's name, I would think I was reading a first novel, one that showed promise but whose author clearly needed time to grow. The characters in this book feel more like ideas than humans. We are told by the author, or rather the narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, what they are like rather than being shown. They carry none of the intense aura of flesh and blood that such recent Roth creations as Merry Levov and Mickey Sabbath did. His main villains are, in fact, nearly ludicrous caricatures: an angry Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD, and an angry, lonely, 29-year-old female professor of French. While the plot is quite interesting, I never felt any kinship with any of the actors in the drama, and thus found it a struggle to continue reading at times. Roth, of course, can still weave together lyrical, beautful paragraphs, but in this particular case I often found myself wondering to what end. This is surprising to me, particularly as I count Roth among my favorite authors, and consider his work of the nineties to be by and large brilliant. I particularly loved American Pastoral, Operation Shylock, and Patrimony, and also had a warm spot for Sabbath's Theater. I Married A Communist seemed a drop-off to me, but nowhere nearly as distressing as that of the Human Stain. Here's hoping a better novel comes out in 2001.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Roth's Best -- But Still Better Than Most Others
Review: The Human Stain is better than 98% of the dreck that gets published these days, but since I believe that Roth is the greatest American writer, ever, this book gets judged against his other works -- thus only four stars. Roth seems to have begun with a notebook of thoughts and observations, turned them into brilliant prose, and then constructed a plot and characterizations around that prose. The result is a dozen or so interesting but thinly developed characters, including even Coleman Silk, the main protagonist. After all, 360 pages is hardly enough to develop this many characters. The book also purports to be a commentary on the issues of race and political correctness in the late 90s. God knows we don't need another OJ book, but how can you comment on race in the 90s without mentioning OJ? Further, the book is set with the Clinton/Lewinsky matter in the background, but apart from four or five pages of an overheard dialogue and a few other observations sprinkled here and there (including the dead-on observation that Monica and her generation are so proud of their shallowness), the books leaves it alone. Although Zuckerman isn't the lout that Rabbit Angstrom was, I would have appreciated Rabbit's take on the state of the union in 2000. I was hoping that Zuckerman could have filled the void left by Rabbit's death, but it was not to be. Read this book anyway!
Rating:
Summary: Buy it! Read it! Tell your friends!
Review: Philip Roth's "The Human Stain" would be worth the price if only for this sentence: "Ninety-eight (1998) in New England was a summer of exquisive warmth and sunshine, in baseball a summer of mythical battle between a home-run god who was white and a home-run god who was brown, and in America the summer of an enormous piety binge, a purity binge when terrorism -- which had replaced communism as the prevailing threat to the country's security -- was succeeded by ( ), and a virile, youthful middle-aged president and a brash, smitten, twenty-one-year-old employee carrying on in the Oval Office like two teenage kids in a parking lot revived America's oldest communal passion, historically perhaps its most treacherous and subversive pleasure: the ecstasy of sanctimony." And that's only page 2. Beautifully written and masterfully plotted, with outrageous humor and raging sorrow, "The Human Stain" lacks for nothing. Buy it! Read it! Tell your friends!
Rating:
Summary: Roth the misogynist
Review: I hadn't read Roth in decades until I read "American Pastoral" about a year ago. I thought that book was so great - a real modern masterpiece - I decided to gobble up some more. But after zipping through "I Married A Communist," an earlier novel called "When She Was Good" and his latest, "The Human Stain," I've become convinced of one thing - Roth has a serious female problem. Now I'm not one of those politically correct types, but the character of Dominique, the near-psychotic female professor in Roth's latest, is so savagely drawn, so pitiless in its depiction, and so unnecessary, I started to realize Roth just doesn't like women. Check out the mother-daughter duo in "Communist" (an obvious attempt to get back at Claire Bloom for her memoir of life with Roth). Or how about the female terrorist in "Pastoral?" Roth is a terrific stylist, but the subtext of these books seems to be how utterly rapacious women are out to destroy men. In Roth's mind it's all about me, me, me - the poor, put upon authorial voice, a pillar of the community whose good works go up in flames when Woman enters the picture. This is a particular shame in "The Human Stain," for this could have been a top-notch novel about a black man passing for white (a subject, incidentally, which seems as old-fashioned as buggy whips). But Roth self-destructs in two ways: he introduces an-out-of-control Vietnam Vet who is so cliche'd he belongs in a "Rambo" movie; and he uses Dominique as a means to lash out, once again, against the female sex. This book gets three stars only because it's so well-written. Otherwise, it's not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Rites of Passing ...
Review: I reach the final word of the final sentence on the final page of a novel by Philip Roth and am exhilarated and anxious, bristling with greed Is there more to come? I wonder. A new book arrives; so besotted am I with this writer that the mere sight of title and byline makes me breathless to get between the covers with Nathan Zuckerman, reader and mis-reader. The Human Stain does not disappoint. This is a book complex and layered and delicious and full of echoes and unregenerate opportunistic invention and re-invention, a book dense with masks and faces, alive with Roth's passionate insight. "For better or worse," Zuckerman tells us, assuming his identity, "I can only do what everyone does who thinks that they know. I imagine."
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating account of Passing
Review: The Human Stain is a fascinating account of the psychological and emotional dangers in "Passing." My book group chose this and another very different book because both deal with this profoundly interesting theme. Seducitve Poison, a memoir of a Jonestown survivor whose mother's passing as white and not a German Jew (and keeping it a secret from her children) pushed both mother and daughter into another deceitful world. Although seemingly at odds both reveal the perils in persuing such a scam and all its tragic ramifications. Both are riveting and well written.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The words flow like a stream catching you up in the flow. Wonderfully descriptive. I ate it like a good meal. Shades of Thomas!
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