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Nemesis
Nemesis | Philip Roth
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2011 In the "stifling heat of equatorial Newark," a terrifying epidemic is raging, threatening the children of the New Jersey city with maiming, paralysis, lifelong disability, and even death. This is the startling theme of Philip Roths wrenching new book: a wartime polio epidemic in the summer of 1944 and the effect it has on a closely knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children. At the center of Nemesis is a vigorous, dutiful twenty-three-year-old playground director, Bucky Cantor, a javelin thrower and weightlifter, who is devoted to his charges and disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. Focusing on Cantors dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playgroundand on the everyday realities he facesRoth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: the fear, the panic, the anger, the bewilderment, the suffering, and the pain. Moving between the smoldering, malodorous streets of besieged Newark and Indian Hill, a pristine childrens summer camp high in the Poconoswhose "mountain air was purified of all contaminants"Roth depicts a decent, energetic man with the best intentions struggling in his own private war against the epidemic. Roth is tenderly exact at every point about Cantors passage into personal disaster, and no less exact about the condition of childhood. Through this story runs the dark questions that haunt all four of Roths late short novels, Everyman, Indignation, The Humbling, and now Nemesis: What kind of accidental choices fatally shape a life? How does the individual withstand the onslaught of circumstance?
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Lcsmcat
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Pickpick

Like most Roth that I‘ve read, there‘s a lot of angst in Nemesis. I found the first two thirds of the book very relevant to the early days of the pandemic when we knew so little about COVID (and they knew so little about polio.) The end, set in the 70s was depressing, and I wished we had been let in on what happened to Marcia. But over all, a good, fast read. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
39 likes1 comment
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Lcsmcat
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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My #doublespin is this pandemic-appropriate novel. @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
38 likes1 comment
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Freespirit
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Pickpick

Nemesis is a short novel set in America in 1944. Bucky the protagonist is 23 and works as the playground director during the polio epidemic. it‘s amazingly powerful yet easy to read. It‘s about fear, suffering and self blame. 4.5 🌟
Now on to The Devil in the Flesh
#literature
#1000booksyoumustread

Ruthiella I love your potted succulents. 🌵 So cute! 😀 The only Roth I‘ve read is 1. Portnoy, but it was decades ago so I remember little and 2. The Plot Against America which I liked. 3y
Freespirit Yes I want to read both of them @Ruthiella. My succulent pots are from Jones & Co...they have such cute pots🌷 3y
Cathythoughts Gorgeous pic 3y
47 likes4 comments
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Freespirit
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Half way through and totally immersed in this book. I am wondering why it took me so long to read something by Philip Roth🤷‍♀️
Set in 1944 during the Polio epidemic it‘s a hard hitting but beautifully written novel.
I remember in my early nursing days looking after patients in an iron lung 🫁 How amazing the invention of ventilators have been to medicine!!
Hope you are all finding time to do a bit of reading!
#americanliterature #life #epidemic

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EadieB
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Day 15 - #Nemesis #BeautifulWords
#Nemesis #PhilipRoth

I read this book in 2015.

nemesis noun

nem·​e·​sis | \ ˈne-mə-səs

Definition of nemesis
1
capitalized : the Greek goddess of retributive justice
2
plural nemeses\ ˈne- mə- ˌsēz

: one that inflicts retribution or vengeance
Many a pursued man fell before his nemesis in the streets …
b
: a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent
The team was defeated by its old nemesis.

plemmdog My book club read it as the pandemic was unfolding. That made it doubly haunting... 4y
EadieB @plemmdog I sure it did! 4y
38 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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Lcsmcat
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I love yellow 💛💛 5y
OriginalCyn620 👍🏻😊💛 5y
Rissreads My favourite colour! 😊🐥🌼⭐️🍋🍌💛 5y
48 likes3 comments
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plemmdog
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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This month‘s book club pick is Philip Roth‘s last novel, which takes place during the 1940s polio epidemic. We‘re planning to Zoom. I wanted to read about something that already happened. I‘ve about reached my breaking point with dystopian fiction...

7 likes1 stack add
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Lcsmcat
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 💛💛💛 5y
OriginalCyn620 👌🏻📚💛 5y
43 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Lcsmcat
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Thrift store #bookhaul! The Undset is a #blameItOnLitsy.

ValerieAndBooks Good haul 👏! 5y
Texreader Undset is awesome. I loved this trilogy 5y
Lcsmcat @Texreader Good to hear! It got a lot of love on here, which is what made me buy it. 5y
50 likes3 comments
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scowler1
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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This is terrifying. Polio outbreaks killing and disabling children in nineteen fifties America. Parents living in fear through the summer months, blaming anyone and anything though no-one had a clue how to prevent it. I can honestly say that in twenty years of watching my daughters grow up, I've never worried much about their health. That's still not the case for too many parents on this planet.

Cinfhen Interesting, not a fan of Roth but I may need to try this book. My dad was involved in polio vaccination litigation so the topic interests me. 6y
3 likes1 comment
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Sha0102
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Pickpick

Great book. "NEMESIS presents a revelation as startling as the discovery of a planet or the alignment of a new constellation... Nemesis could be the darkest novel Roth has written and ranks with the most provocative." -- Kirkus Reviews Entertaining level: ???? #livro #book #bookaholic #booklovers #ler #leitura #leitora #reading #instabook #instaread #instabooks #bookstagram #igread #litsy #booklover #2014Sha

5 likes1 stack add
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BarbaraBB
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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Pickpick

Great novel about polio and guilt. Another Roth I really liked. #1001books Picture: Mijayima, Japan

5 likes1 stack add
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shuva
Nemesis | Philip Roth
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My kobo died so I picked up the kindle. Been meaning to read this for a while now.

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GoneFishing
Nemesis | Philip Roth

You have a conscience, and a conscience is a valuable attribute, but not if it begins to make you think you were to blame for what is far beyond the scope of your responsibility.