The Human Stain - Philip Roth

A book full of lies. I am not even sure the ending is not a lie by the author in the story, Mr. Zuckerman. As Coleman himself says at one point, “there is no closure.” Hm. Strange. The story is too neatly packaged at the end, coming full circle. Hm. A lie? This book was hard to get into. I almost put it down several times because it seemed to ramble and go off on tangent topics like the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, which in the end still made sense. It was the era and it was included because of the powerful men, sex, and lies connection. The Human Stain. We are tainted by our humanity and one powerful man was almost taken down by one human stain. Coleman Silk, in book, was taken down by one word, spook. He was a pale black man who lived his life as a white person, a Jewish white person, and cut off contact with his family. He was a professor at a lily-white college. Lily-white is a word used on two occasions in the book. I did like this book. It is wordy and long and full of intellectual reflection and almost preachy in its rambling at times. Not a book for idle summer beach blanket enjoyment. Interesting racial issues. My rating is 7 (of 10). As a linguist I also have to admire the impossibly long sentences, sometimes extending over a full page. Amazing.