Books › Indignation
Indignation
358 pages
An intense, witty plunge into the anxieties, intellectual rebellions, and terrifying chances of a young man's 1950s college experience.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like stepping into the anxious, high-stakes mind of a young man desperate to forge his own path in 1950s America. The narrative moves with a brisk, inventive energy, balancing sharp wit with a pervasive sense of apprehension. You are immersed in a mood that is at once pastorally calm on the surface and deeply constricted underneath, reflecting the terrifying chances and bizarre obstructions of early adulthood. The prose is sharp and intense, capturing the protagonist's intellectual resistance and sexual discovery against a backdrop of parental paranoia and cultural alienation. It is a perfect fit for readers who devour character-driven stories about the fraught, foolish, and courageous journey of self-realization.
- Mood
- apprehensive
- constricted
- energetic
- Tone
- intense
- witty
- anxious
- inventive
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- coming-of-age anxiety · intellectual resistance · sexual discovery · parental paranoia · cultural alienation · self-realization
- The writing
- Energetic and witty, capturing the intense, anxious intellect of a young man navigating a restrictive world.
- The arc
- A journey from sheltered apprehension into the terrifying, bizarre, and liberating constrictions of early adulthood.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate intense, character-driven explorations of mid-century American youth, intellectual rebellion, and the anxieties of coming-of-age.
Content notes
- antisemitism
- war themes
- parental paranoia
About the book
A dazzling new novel from a modern master of the form.It is 1951 in America, the second year of the Korean War. A studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner is beginning his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he here and not at a local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hardworking neighbourhood butcher seems to have gone mad - mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in the every corner for his beloved boy. So Marcus leaves and, far from home, has to find his way amid the customs and constrictions of another American world.Indignation is the story of a young man's education in life's terrifying chances and bizarre obstructions. It is a story of inexperience, foolishness, intellectual resistance, sexual discovery, courage and error, told with all the inventive energy and with Roth has at his command.
Description from Open Library.
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