Indignation (novel)

Indignation
First edition cover
Author(s)	Philip Roth
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	September 16, 2008
Pages	233 pp
ISBN	978-0-547-05484-1
OCLC Number	212846986
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Classification	PS3568.O855 I53 2008

Indignation is a novel by Philip Roth, released by Houghton Mifflin on September 16, 2008.^[1] It is his twenty-ninth book.^[2]

Plot

Set in America in 1951, the second year of the Korean War, Indignation is narrated by Marcus Messner, a college student from Newark, New Jersey, who describes his sophomore year at Winesburg College in Ohio. Marcus transfers to Winesburg from Robert Treat College in Newark to escape his father, a kosher butcher, who appears to have become consumed with fear about the dangers of adult life, the world, and the uncertainty that awaits his son.

At Winesburg College, Marcus becomes infatuated with a fellow student, Olivia Hutton, a survivor of a suicide attempt. The sexually inexperienced Marcus is bewildered when Olivia performs fellatio on him during their one and only date. Marcus's mother objects to his dating someone who attempted suicide and makes him vow to end their relationship.

Marcus has an adversarial relationship with the dean of men, Hawes Caudwell. In a meeting in Dean Caudwell's office, Marcus objects to the chapel attendance requirement on the grounds that he is an atheist. In this meeting, he quotes extensively from Bertrand Russell's essay "Why I Am Not a Christian". Later, the dean finds Marcus guilty of hiring another student to attend chapel in his place; when Marcus refuses to attend double the amount of chapel services as punishment, the dean expels him. His expulsion allows the U.S. Army to draft him and send him to fight in Korea where he is killed in combat. Early in the novel, Marcus explains that he is dead and telling his story from the afterlife; later it is revealed that he is unconscious from his combat wounds and the morphine that has been administered.

The backdrop of Winesburg is an homage to Sherwood Anderson's book Winesburg, Ohio.

Film

Film producer Scott Rudin bought the rights to Indignation in April 2008, five months before the book was scheduled to be published.^[3] In September 2008 Lauren Lipton argued on Portfolio.com that Rudin was unwise to acquire the rights to the book "given Roth's Hollywood track record," saying that, "of his many tomes, only a few have made it to the big screen to date."^[4]

See also

Novels portal

• Campus novel

External links

• Arise! Drusilla Modjeska review of Indignation in The Monthly.
• The Nicest Boy in the World Charles Simic review of Indignation from The New York Review of Books
• The fatal handjob James Wolcott review of Indignation in The New Republic

Footnotes

1. ^ "Indignation Day". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/books/indignationdayform.html. Retrieved February 4, 2010. 
2. ^ "Indignation". rbooks. Random House Group. http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=0224085131. Retrieved February 4, 2010. 
3. ^ Fleming, Michael (April 16, 2008). "Rudin nabs Roth's 'Indignation'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984139.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved February 4, 2010. 
4. ^ Neyfakh, Leon (September 18, 2008). "In Which Portfolio Says Scott Rudin Made a Big Mistake Buying the Film Rights to Roth's Indignation". New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/2008/media/which-portfolio-says-scott-rudin-made-big-mistake-buying-film-rights-roths-indignation. Retrieved February 4, 2010.