"Everyman" by Philip Roth

"Everyman"
by Philip Roth
2006
182 pages




This was my first time reading Roth and I have to say that I was not disappointed. At first, I wasn't sure which of the author's many works to start out with but was attracted by the stark cover and familiar literary title of "Everyman." The original "Everyman" was an English play from the 15th century that I remembered from high school literature as being about a man who has a conversation with Death. Interesting, I thought.


"Everyman" is told from the perspective of a man who has lived through a lot: three marriages and divorces, the birth of children and grandchildren, and the death of his parents and many friends. What's strange about the book though is that the first page tells you about this man's funeral, starting at the end of his story. As this short novel progresses, you learn more and more details about his life and begin to understand the inner workings of this character who is never named.


Roth's book is a masterpiece of a metaphor. Anyone can read it and identify with some small part of this man's life, whether it be in his complicated love life or his fear of dying. The main focus of the novel is death and how everyone must perish at some point. A part of the book I particularly liked was when the protagonist related something his father, a jeweler, had told him and his brother when they were young:

"It's a big deal for working people to buy a diamond," he told his sons, "no matter how small. The wife can wear it for the beauty and she can wear it for the status. And when she does, this guy is not just a plumber-- he's a man with a wife with a diamond. His wife owns something that is imperishable. Because beyond the beauty and status and the value, the diamond is imperishable. A piece of the earth that is imperishable, and a mere mortal is wearing it on her hand!"

Isn't it true that all most of us are looking for is something imperishable? Something that appeals to our infinite natures? This was the struggle of Roth's everyman, and it was evident right up to this excellent novel's last page.