A return to Nathan Zuckerman, hero of old. Just as neurotic, but now bitter, old, despairing, and at the end of things. Impotent in more ways than (the literal) one.

Interesting juxtaposition between the defeated Zuckerman being written by a Roth at the top of his game.

If you had read the previous Zuckerman books, I don’t see how you can pass this one up. It’s not a smash hit the way other recent Roth books have been (American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, Plot Against America = all great) — and it’s no Sabbath’s Theater — but it’s got some nice closure on the NZ story.