Philip Roth. First edition, first printing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. Both unclipped dust jacket and hardcover are in Fine condition. No writing or markings found in this pristine, unread copy, 233 pp. Dust jacket designed by legendary Milton Glaser.
"Of all Roth's recent novels, it ventures farthest into the unknowable. In his unshowy way, with all his quotidian specificity and merciless skepticism, Roth is attempting to storm heaven "an endeavor all the more desperately daring because he seems dead certain it's not there" (David Gates, The New York Times Book Review).
The story is set in America, 1951, the second year of the Korean War. Marcus Messner, a studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, is entering his sophomore year at Ohio's Winseburg College. And not closer to home? Where his hard-working butcher father is going mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy? Better you should put a little distance between yourself and a parent in this condition. One's own chances become more compelling, more imaginable and alive.
A beautiful first edition of Roth's twenty-ninth book.
