Host
Eurozine
Host
2009-01-30
Abstracts for Host 10/2008
Michal Sykora
Sex, death, life in reclusion (later works of Philip Roth)
In recent years, Philip Roth has written a new novel each year. After the enormous success of Plot against America, he published the short novel Everyman. His main character, an anonymous old man, recapitulates his life only in terms of illness and suffering. Many critics claimed something was missing in Everyman, to be specific: any form of catharsis. The protagonist's death is sudden, without anything transcendental, without any higher sense.
In Exit Ghost, Roth investigates the relationship between a work of art and the life of its creator. It's another (and maybe the last) novel in the Zuckerman series, a continuation to the "American Trilogy", in its way. But here also lies the biggest problem of this novel. The plot seems not to work without prior knowledge of Roth´s previous novels, especially the "Trilogy" and The Ghost Writer, the first Zuckerman novel.
Even though many critics have been embarrassed by Exit Ghost, Roth continues to be one of the most respected writers of contemporary fiction. Hiss uniqueness consists in his uncompromising truthfulness and candour in addressing the problems of today's world.
Pavla Holcová
Whoever writes is a foe (how independent literature flourishes on the island of liberty)
Although officially banned, independent literature flourishes in Cuba taking advantage of different forms of clandestine diffusion. As distribution possibilities are severely limited, "big" literary forms, such as the novel, can only reach their readership with great difficulty. However, small literary forms existing on the borderline between fiction and journalism have become very popular among these authors, who will never be able to show their writers' union membership card. Feuilletons, columns, short essays and contemplations concerning the problems of everyday life in Cuba, calm memories and remembrances leading to stirring declarations and fiery accusations against the Castro régime... -- these texts are not only respectable successors of the great tradition of Hispanic journalism dating back to the times of Mariano José de Larra, but also true jewels of imaginative writing, proving that real literature can only be based on real life.