Marie-Claire Pasquier Books

Situé dans les environs de Newark, à l'époque où éclate une terrible épidémie de polio, Némésis décrit avec précision le jeu des circonstances sur nos vies. Pendant l'été 1944, Bucky Cantor, un jeune homme de vingt-trois ans, vigoureux, doté d'un grand sens du devoir, anime et dirige un terrain de jeu. Lanceur de javelot, haltérophile, il a honte de ne pas avoir pris part à la guerre aux côtés de ses contemporains en raison de sa mauvaise vue. Tandis que la maladie provoque des ravages parmi les enfants qui jouent sur le terrain, Roth nous fait sentir chaque parcelle d'émotion que peut susciter une telle calamité : peur, panique, colère, perplexité, souffrance et peine. Des rues de Newark au camp de vacances rudimentaire, haut dans les Poconos, Némésis dépeint avec tendresse le sort réservé aux enfants, le glissement de Cantor dans la tragédie personnelle et les effets terribles que produit une épidémie de polio sur la vie d'une communauté de Newark, étroitement organisée autour de la famille.

En «El río de la vida», la primera y más extensa de las tres historias autobiográficas que forman este libro, un padre estricto transmite a sus dos hijos -Norman y Paul− su pasión por la pesca con mosca. Los ríos tienen su orden y los chicos aprenden a conocerlo, pero las aguas siempre esconden algún misterio. La vida, como los ríos, fluye sin que muchas veces podamos resolver los interrogantes que ésta nos plantea; al final de la suya, Norman rememora los acontecimientos del último verano en que pescó junto a su padre y su hermano tratando de buscar en ellos las respuestas. «Leñadores, proxenetas, y «Tu camarada, Jim»» y «Servicio forestal de Estados Unidos, 1919» completan un libro que es ya un clásico de la literatura norteamericana reciente. La pesca con mosca, el trabajo de los guardabosques, la naturaleza y la vida en Montana a principios de siglo son algunos de los temas que el autor aborda en estas inolvidables historias en las que retrata su aprendizaje vital; con ellas quiso expresar, según sus propias palabras, «un poco de ese amor que siento por la tierra». Robert Redford adaptó este libro al cine en 1992 en un largometraje homónimo.

Focusing on Cantor's dilemmas as polio begins to ravage his playground - and on the everyday realities he faces - this title leads us through various emotions such a pestilence can breed: the fear, the panic, the anger, the bewilderment, the suffering, and the pain.

Returning to New York after eleven years, Nathan Zuckerman finds a transformed city. Having lived in solitude on his New England mountain, he has focused solely on writing, free from distractions and the burdens of modern life. However, his re-entry into the city quickly disrupts his isolation. He forms a connection with a young couple, offering to swap homes: they will escape post-9/11 Manhattan for his rural retreat, while he returns to urban life. This arrangement awakens Zuckerman's desires, particularly for the young woman, Jaime, reigniting his longing for intimacy and passion. His second connection is with Amy Bellette, once his muse and companion to his literary idol, E.I. Lonoff. Now aged and frail, Amy clings to memories of Lonoff, the writer who inspired Zuckerman's solitary journey into literature. The third connection is with a young biographer eager to uncover Lonoff's "great secret," pulling Zuckerman into a web of love, loss, and rivalry that he had hoped to avoid. As he navigates these relationships, Zuckerman grapples with themes of desire, mourning, and the complexities of human connection. This narrative reflects Roth's signature style and thematic depth, marking a significant evolution in his exploration of fiction.

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 60s, 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 on stage 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 the 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 persuade ourselves of our solidity, all our life's performances - talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation - are stripped off. Following the dark meditations on mortality and endings in Everyman and Exit Ghost, and the bitterly ironic retrospective on youth and chance in Indignation, Roth has written another in his haunting group of late novels.