Indignation

I had never even thought of reading Philip Roth before Indignation caught my eye, and I decided to read it largely because I found the cover very alluring.

I was drawn to it like prey to a spectacularly coloured but mortally poisonous snake.

Once I started reading I liked how often I got to turn each page owing to their generous margins. Thanks to the page layout, hot weather and Connex it didn't take me long to finish Indignation.

I like this book for other more substantial reasons. There is a nice twist to begin with, and the narrator, Marcus Messner, is a young American Jewish boy who speaks sense. The story follows him from Newark, New Jersey to college in Winnesburg, Ohio and while the narrative action occurs for the most part within the relative safety of fifties social repression, the Korean War forms a threatening backdrop to Marcus's young life.

A review of Indignation in Huffington Post led me to consider Messner's story in light of the relationship American youth today have with the war in Iraq. Suddenly the flippancy that saturates the public domain appears unforgiveable.

I am certainly keen to read more Roth, and would recommend Indignation to anyone.