Carole Angier
Messner’s Wrath
Indignation
By Philip Roth
Jonathan Cape 233pp £16.99
In Indignation Philip Roth returns once more to his roots – to Newark, his poor, wildly warm Jewish family, and his move away from both into the rich, cold WASP world. There are echoes of Goodbye Columbus and Portnoy’s Complaint – especially the latter, since young Alexander Portnoy also sang the Chinese national anthem at school in the early 1950s: ‘Indignation fills the hearts of all our countrymen/ Arise! Arise! Arise!’
This is all to the good. Whenever Roth draws on that original spring of inspiration – in both Columbus and Portnoy, in Patrimony (a memoir of his father’s death), most recently in The Plot Against America – he produces, to my mind, his best and truest work. And in many
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm