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Indignation
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
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Summary
In 1951, the second year of the Korean War, a studious, law-abiding, and intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, begins his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at a local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hardworking neighborhood butcher, seems to have gone mad - mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees on every corner for his beloved boy. Far from Newark, Marcus has to find his way amid the customs and constrictions of another American world.
Indignation, Philip Roth's 29th book, is a startling departure from the haunted narratives of old age and experience in Roth's recent books and a powerful exploration of a remarkable moment in American history.
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What listeners say about Indignation
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- Wras
- 22-05-17
Other people’s weakness can destroy you
just as much as their strength can. Weak people are not harmless. Their weakness can be their strength."
Philip Roth, Indignation
An amazing little book, full of indignant rage at life's inequities, at the power of small events unravelling entire lives, Especially for the young and their certainty that they have got it.
A masterpiece of how to bring characters to life, with a complex multilayered plot that hides a parable for modern times, where morals and beliefs change faster than ever stripping all value of things we held as certainty or immutable.
A book that leaves you pondering at all the little injustices, that can set a cascade of events in motion that will change it all.
“what his uneducated father had been trying so hard to teach him all along: of the terrible, the incomprehensible way one’s most banal, incidental, even comical choices achieve the most disproportionate result.”
― Philip Roth, Indignation
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9 people found this helpful
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- Andrew Strahl
- 12-01-22
Amazing Narrator! Solid period novel
Indignation is a strong rather short novel (223 pages). The first-person protagonist is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield, but a more—well, indignant—version of a post WWII college student. The extra cynicism reflects the difference in the times: for Indignants protagonist, the Korean-war (with its attendant sense of futility) is raging in the background, posing an existential threat to any college student who, due to idealism, has trouble “playing the game”. While Holden Caulfield had trouble with the same game-playing idea, in the period in which Indignation is set, the psychological stakes are higher, as failure to stay in university could result in being drafted and dying in Korea. It is, therefor, no surprise this book has a darker, more psychologically tense voice, and ends up focusing on human folly/despair more desperately than the tone/focus of The Catcher in the Rye. (Sorry! Hard for me not to keep comparing the two books when they are so thick with a similar societal backdrop!)
Excellent story: tight, entertaining, though (appropriately) angry/dark due to the simplistic idealism of the protagonist. Not many laughs, but entertaining.
The voice of the narrator, Ray Chase, is one of the most spot-on, versatile, and compelling I’ve heard yet on Audible! He does different voices outrageously well, and sometimes with a skill that sounds like he overdubbed another speaker. (At other times, he simply lightens or darkens his voice slightly. Subtle, not like he’s trying to make an over-the-top radio play!) I’m definitely going to listen to more books that he narrates. Highly recommended! I
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2 people found this helpful
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- Angus Jenkinson
- 29-12-23
Another magnificent Bellow
This is a moving potent tale about human beings being noble fools in their aspersions and aspirations. Short, punchy, subtle and rich. A brilliant youth escapes or rejects various unacceptable obligations and winds up… I won’t spoil the story.
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- NGomperts
- 09-11-23
Sharp, engaging, warm yet sad
Another wonderful quick listen from Audible for an entertaining interlude between your worthy tombs. Enjoyed
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- ecojanie
- 03-11-23
Another a Roth triumph
Short but sweet, thoroughly enjoyable. Great characterisation. good story. Great narration. Listen and I doubt you'll be disappointed
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- Francesca D.
- 15-03-22
reminiscent of catcher in the rye
a great short (ish) story that will give you JD Salinger vibes. a coming of age story that's peppered with tragic reality.
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- Demetri D
- 15-03-22
Has it taken this long?
… for me to become introduced to the words of Philip Roth? I suppose living in the UK and divided by our common language and petty sense of difference it might be not such a surprise.
Roth puts the spotlight our personal and collective sense of self. He calls into question our perceptions of identity and how we are dragged into all manner of bizarre and irrational activities as a consequence of our delusion only visible from the outside.
The story seems ridiculous, petty, opinionated, selfish, and self-absorbed and deeply unpleasant producing results all too predictably disastrous … and then, I realise it is my own story. How silly of me not to realise sooner.
Excellent work, and now I understand a little bit more about how come his brilliance and skill is recognised. My prejudices have been exposed as for why it hadn’t been so with me.
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Complementary to the writing is the remarkable performance by the narrator who became the characters in an absorbing way. The tone, pace and intensity of his reading had me laughing and crying and I struggled to separate the story from reality. Absolutely brilliant.
This is my first Phillip Roth and it won’t be my last. Thank you Audible and all those involved.
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- Anonymous User
- 30-01-22
First time I've come across a Phillip Roth Book
Enjoyed the writing very much and the story left me intrigued and eager to find out what would happen.
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- mr
- 21-01-22
Good listen
Enjoyed this book and was free!
Short and to the point, no waffling, and a good engrossing story.
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- Steve m
- 17-11-21
surprisingly good
Extremely well read, and an interesting story. Definitely worth listening to. Didn't know what to expect this being the first piece of work that I have listened to by this author but very pleasantly surprised.
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