“We leave a stain, we leave a trail, we leave our imprint. Impurity, cruelty, abuse, error, excrement, semen - there’s no other way to be here. Nothing to do with disobedience. Nothing to do with grace or salvation or redemption. It’s in everyone. Indwelling. Inherent. Defining. The stain that is there before its mark.”
The third of Philip Roth's trilogy of novels that explore the relationship between public and private life in America during the second half of the 20th century. As in American Pastoral (1997) and I Married a Communist (1998), Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's favorite alter ego, serves as the narrator.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. First printing. Hardcover. Octavo. 361 pages. Dust jacket in very good condition with some edge wear. Boards clean and bright with slight edge wear. Some crushing at spine ends. Binding tight and square. Pages clear. Marginalia on the back fly leaves with a corner torn off of final leaf. Unique copy.
