Nemesis By Philip Roth Center Point Large Print, (2010) ISBN: 978-1602858985 Genre: Fiction

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - April 20, 2011

The nemesis in this superbly written novel is polio and ones' self. As the saying goes, "we have found the enemy and they is us." The protagonist in the tale is Bucky Cantor, the town's playground director. He is a very conscientious young man in his early twenties, perhaps even over-conscientious, He wants with all his being to join his two buddies and go to war, but his poor vision necessitates that he wear thick eyeglasses, and he can barely see without them, so the military turns him down. He enjoys his work with kids who are not yet teen-agers and they adore him. He is very scrupulous in how he cares for them. Then polio strikes the community. Roth describes how the people react, the children, their parents, a local idiot, Bucky's grandmother, his girl friend, her father, and most of all Bucky himself. Roth shows us how Bucky faces his failure – his mother died at childbirth, his father was a thief, he could not serve in the military, and he feels that he is a carrier causing the people he loves to have polio. Bucky's girl friend, who loves him passionately, has conventional ideas about God and evil, such as polio. But Bucky not only feels guilty as a possible carrier, but questions God: how could God allow polio, why did he create it, how could he let it kill so many children and maim others, and do so to the adults as well.

This was about a dozen years before a vaccine is found to stop polio. People have no idea what causes it. Some anti-Semites claim that the Jews cause the disease, some of the playground children think that the Italians who came to the playground and spit on the ground brought it, other children blame it on the local idiot who walks around without whipping the feces from his body, and Bucky blames himself.

Readers will read about the relationship between Bucky and the girl he loves and whether it can withstand the stress of polio, what happens to Bucky, is he a carrier, does he survive?

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