Mortal

Name: Mortal
ISBN: 9787532782260

Philip Roth / 彭伦Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaJun 2020

4.3

Word count: 66K words
Chapters: 3
ISBN: 9787532782260

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Summary

The title of *Everyman* derives from a medieval morality play that recounts the deathbed experience of an "Everyman" summoned by Death. Roth's *Everyman* is a story of loss and regret, illness and death. The novel's protagonist was once a creative director at a New York advertising agency; he has had three failed marriages, two sons who resent him, and one daughter who adores him. He also has a devoted older brother who is always there to care for him—a brother whose robust health he even envies. From witnessing death for the first time during childhood summers at the seaside, to success in his vigorous adulthood along with the coming-together and falling-apart of several marriages and families, and on to old age, watching his contemporaries dwindle while illness repeatedly strikes him, loneliness and powerlessness become the themes of his life. Such is the life of Roth's "Everyman": candid, profound, and universal in significance.

Editor's review

Philip Roth's Everyman is a late-career work that confronts death and memory directly, holding a steady score of around 8.5 on Douban—evidence of its deep resonance across cultural boundaries. The novel follows a retired advertising man's final reflections, and without grand narrative it uses fragmentary flashbacks of illness, surgery, family relations, and past erotic life to build a spiritual map of a modern person facing the end of life. Roth's prose is cool and precise, weaving the protagonist's fear of aging, regret over past failures, and questioning of meaning into everyday dialogue and interior monologue with almost anatomical honesty.

As the opening of Roth's "late trilogy," Everyman's literary value lies in stripping away layer after layer of social identity to reach humanity's most primitive existential anxiety. It is not a book that offers consolation; it invites the reader into a serious examination of life. Roth inherits the tradition of moral inquiry in Jewish literature while handling the themes of bodily decline and the disintegration of self-identity in a strikingly modern way. The repeated hospital scenes and the complex portrayal of the father-son relationship demonstrate the author's consummate control of detail. The novel requires patience and some life experience to appreciate; its power lies not in plot twists but in the heavy sighs about existence itself that permeate the silences.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Serious readers interested in existential literature or the theme of late-life writing
Readers in midlife transition beginning to think about mortality and past choices
Literature lovers who appreciate cool, spare, philosophically reflective narrative
Readers who want to understand Philip Roth's late style and core themes

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking light entertainment or strongly plot-driven stories
Readers who feel strong discomfort with or aversion to themes of illness, aging, and death

Reading tips

Read in installments in a quiet setting that allows sustained reflection; do not rush
Pay attention to recurring images (surgery, the beach, the father's hands) and their variations
If the book feels heavy, pair it with Roth interviews or critical essays to understand its context

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

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FAQ

How does Everyman differ in style from Roth's other major works, such as American Pastoral?

Compared with the broad social-historical narrative of American Pastoral, Everyman turns inward, focusing on the end of an individual life; its style is more condensed and meditative, with a stronger autobiographical and philosophical flavor, marking a late-career shift in Roth's writing.

What is the significance of the title "Everyman"?

"Everyman" points directly to the inevitability of death and human finitude. It refers both to the protagonist's status as an ordinary man and to the idea that before illness and death, all social achievements and emotional entanglements eventually fade, and everyone returns to the most fundamental vulnerability of life.

Is the book difficult to read?

The structure is not complex and the technique is not obscure, but its profound themes and meditative tone require some life experience or background in philosophical reading for full resonance. For younger readers, it may serve as an early lesson in the meaning of life.

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About the author

Philip Roth Author · American · 1933–2018

Philip Roth (1933–2018) was an American novelist, born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and rose to prominence in 1959 with Goodbye, Columbus. His work often centers on the lives of American Jews while probing the tensions between identity, desire, and history, in a style that blends satire with self-examination. His major works include Portnoy's Complaint, American Pastoral, The Human Stain, Sabbath's Theater, and The Plot Against America, as well as nonfiction such as The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography and Reading Myself and Others. He won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and died in 2018; the collection holds 33 of his works.

彭伦 Author

Peng Lun is an author active in the field of Chinese-language book publishing and editing. Publicly available information about him is limited, and details such as his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly documented. Four of his works are included in the collection: Legacy, Legacy (A True Story), Ordinary People, and The Paris Review: Interviews with Publishers. These works suggest that his writing and editorial interests center on foreign literature and literary appreciation, with particular attention to true stories, personal destinies, and interviews and experiences within the publishing industry. The Paris Review: Interviews with Publishers reflects his sustained engagement with the workings of publishing and the editorial perspective, while works such as Legacy and Ordinary People indicate a tendency toward documentary or narrative treatment of personal and family themes. Overall, Peng Lun's output is limited in quantity, but his work has a certain significance for the translation and introduction of foreign literature and for documenting publishing culture, and it may be of reference value to readers interested in literary documentary writing and publishing practice.