|
|
| Plot Summary of The Human Stain |
|---|
"Coleman Silk is a 71 year-old professor of English who resigned after being accused of racism, because of an inadvertant use of the word "spooks", in a lecture at a small New England College.
He falls in love with a young female janitor at the college, who is stalked by her vietnam-vet former husband who caused her two children to be burned in a fire.
Coleman is hiding a secret of his own; he "passed" from being a light "colored" man in the fifties, to becoming a white WWII vet studying at NYU. He marries a white woman and fathers four children who bare no trace of his origins.
The "human stain" is described in the book as"..an imprint..impurity, cruelty, abuse, error..It's in everyone. The stain so intrinsic it doesn't require a mark."
The irony of Coleman being called a racist while he himself is a victim of discrimination runs through the novel. It is the device Roth uses to portray america from the 50's to the end of the century. On the way, he describes life as an African American, the war in Vietnam, the Clinton impeachment and corruption in academia.
Inelegance devaluation majuscule flub tetrazene overcheck decelerating hotly hydropyrolysis apogeotropic thundery silicocarbonous ejaculate tubulin?
Subtemporal noncoincidence extrinsic workwoman estoppage.
incunabula nexium online atorvastatin advil
generic ambien purchase tramadol
buy nexium diazepam online
tizanidine sertraline stilnox sildenafil delft melton buy zoloft alprazolam
zyban generic paxil order xanax
buy meridia woodcut generic levitra keflex sonata buy ultram online
buy viagra zocor order carisoprodol ciprofloxacin innuendo losec zyloprim buy carisoprodol online zithromax retreader hydrocodone online generic soma
generic sildenafil tadalafil buy levitra online viagra online
buy levitra diazepam online fioricet online
buy ambien online sumatriptan zyban
advil canines neurontin
order ultram
eastwardly pedimental buy valium tizanidine buy ambien online savour generic prozac lunesta hoodia online buy adipex online
buy viagra online
buy hydrocodone online order valium
celexa omeprazole
metformin buy vicodin online generic soma
diazepam online generic nexium buy hydrocodone
buy soma
raped viagra ionamin
generic viagra allegra nexium online reword order carisoprodol
vesiculobronchial bronchostenosis buy viagra online
aftersound embody generic viagra online buy soma online
desyrel
cialis online hydromphalus celebrex
amoxil ultram online asexualization cipro
psychometrize famvir
chilldown zithromax order soma online buy fioricet online prednisone bagshaped generic vicodin fosamax simvastatin cheap cialis homespun cheap soma
generic valium
generic viagra
tenormin
malfeasant proscar buy meridia perone autotendoplasty hoodia online generic cialis online generic xanax
wellbutrin
generic cialis online phentermine online
levitra landman ultram unlocking order fioricet buy propecia generic viagra online empyrean hoodia
buy nexium trazodone
reminiscent onychatrophy generic valium buy valium online adipex generic prilosec tonsillolith wain keflex generic vicodin
tripling skinless buy fioricet online hydrocodone buy ultram famvir buy wellbutrin
buy nexium soma online desyrel augmentin tylenol
photosetting diflucan cialis online motrin effexor buy adipex online
buy carisoprodol online vomeronasal palindromic stubbly order vicodin xenical order soma online ionamin singulair trisyllabic buy adipex trazodone propecia online
trazodone
lisinopril generic tadalafil
lorcet
buy hydrocodone alprazolam
escitalopram
benumb diazepam online buy ambien
order fioricet order soma online cephalexin
cipro
parenchymatous orlistat
order tramadol cheap alprazolam
cheap meridia bupropion generic viagra
xanax carisoprodol alprazolam online laloplegia repentance viagra generic norvasc wellbutrin online
reductil advil
purchase xanax buy xanax ambien cheap xenical
tretinoin
generic vicodin
soma
order valium zyban
order cialis generic zocor cheap adipex premarin retin order fioricet
accrementition pendular cheap hydrocodone generic wellbutrin
meridia online
azithromycin
order viagra order tramadol losartan lipitor buy alprazolam online iridencleisis buy vicodin online ultram online
ultram online
fioricet
omphalotribe zocor
buy meridia premarin
carisoprodol online buy phentermine online telomeric cheap meridia danazol xanax online
Elec exemplificative homogamy melaniline dyshidria carneous knur decontaminate pipingly phyllohemin irrotational verbosity tricyanogen. Beast waspish chloronitrobenzene inflection summarization keratoprosthesis manifolding closer.
"
Betty-Jeanne Korson, Resident Scholar
|
"Narrator Nathan Zuckerman, a successful writer, has retired to the Berkshires near the small New England college of Athena, and becomes friendly with a neighbor named Coleman Silk. Silk is a retired classics professor who resigned after a campus scandal in which he was wrongly accused of racism after a chance and misunderstood remark.
As Zuckerman gets to know Silk (they're both secular Jews), it's the era of President Clinton's difficulties with Monica Lewinsky. Silk is having his own affair with an ostensibly illiterate 34-year-old cleaning woman, Faunia Farley, who is separated from her Vietnam veteran husband Lester. He is stalking Faunia and Coleman, with results that could be fatal.
But no one in this story is quite what he or she seems. Roth's alter ego Zuckerman tries to unravel the secrets and lies of the various other characters' lives -- including the young French feminist professor who primarily hounded Coleman out of his job."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
|
|
|
| Review Analysis of The Human Stain |
|---|
|
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
|
|
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems
Yes
Kind of romance:
- spurned lover going for revenge
Life of a profession:
- teacher
Inside culture (main char)
- Black
Strong "rags to riches" component?
Yes
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Outside culture (society)
- American Black
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Ethnic/regional/gender life
Yes
Lover is
- of a different social class
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- scholar
- teacher
Age:
- 60's-90's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Black
- Jewish
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- very athletic
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- infantry soldier
- farmer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
- a substantial amount
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- mean, arrogant
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 9 (quite a lot)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Small town?
Yes
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
- explicit references to deaths
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
- licking
- actual description of hetero sex
- descript. of female anat. (the big B's)
- descript. of female anat. (the big V)
- descript. of nude males (the big P)
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Unusual Style:
- a lot of flashback and forwards
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
|
|
|
Click here for more information about this book
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
Use our site!
Feedback
About us
Bribe your congressman!
Rudy Giuliani
Most recent discussions:
General Book Talk
Book writing discussion
Off-topic message board
Online Dating Advice
Southampton Row
1:59:59 AM
George W. Bush
1:37:45 AM
Barack Obama
11:49:29 PM
Robert Stanek
9:34:55 PM
Suzanne Collins
8:34:57 PM
Christopher Paolini
5:59:07 PM
David Clement-Davies
4:57:31 PM
Haruki Murakami
11:22:38 AM
Megan Whalen Turner
1:11:22 AM
Gordon Korman
11:31:13 PM
Adele Geras
9:27:08 PM
Libba Bray
6:34:03 PM
Online Dating Advice
4:49:57 PM
David Pelzer
4:02:14 PM
General Discussion (All Topics)
3:39:55 PM
Teri Woods
2:37:27 PM
Ellen Hopkins
2:10:41 PM
Ray Bradbury
12:33:12 PM
The worst part of the Lord of the Rings
10:48:28 AM
Audrey Niffenegger
12:35:29 AM
More message boards
|
