Everything is over for Simon Axler, the
protagonist of Philip Roth’s startling new book. One of the
leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his
sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent, and his
assurance. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his
great roles, "are melted into air, into thin air." When he
goes onstage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an
idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he
imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to
be someone else. "Something fundamental has vanished." His
wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can’t
persuade him to make a comeback. Into this shattering
account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation
bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation
for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not
toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and
more shocking end. In this long day’s journey into night,
told with Roth’s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity,
all the ways that we convince ourselves of our solidity, all
our life’s performances—talent, love, sex, hope, energy,
reputation—are stripped off. The
Humbling is Roth’s thirtieth book.