After a sick day (yesterday), I come back to the blog to find my stat tracker telling me that traffic is up about 1299%. That’s a lot of percent. So I figured I should pick a book that highlights a few things about the library.
First, this book is from the McNaughton Collection. This collection is part of a rotating, leased collection of books which are intended to provide current leisure reading to campuses around the nation. Since we participate, we have a selection always available. So, while I’m featuring a book from the collection now, there is no guarantee it will be here forever. The collection is housed together on the second floor of the library.
Second, the book is the 25th novel by American author Philip Roth. Now, between librarians, Mr. Roth has mixed emotions for us. There might be a librarian who thinks he is absolutely brilliant, and there might be librarians who think that he has added to negative stereotypes of Jewish culture, as well as negative stereotypes about New Jersey: sort of like a sophisticated Kevin Smith but without an obvious underlying love of the state. Or the funny. One thing most of us have agreed on is that his best work might be a recent title called The Plot Against America, an alternative history story, somewhere between science fiction and a “what if?” tale involving Charles Lindberg (of flying planes fame) winning the presidency, being a Nazi sympathizer, and trying to ruin America on our way into World War II. That’s not what he normally writes like, and for some reason it was brilliant.
No, what he normally writes like is captured in the Book of the Day, Indignation. The story is about a 1950s boy from Newark, New Jersey (which could be the beginning description for any Philip Roth book) named Marcus Messner who decides to transfer to a college in Ohio after his father starts becomes overbearing with safety concerns. Culture shock hits Marcus immediately, and his experience shapes the rest of the novel. Who knew the Midwest could shock anyone?
