The Humbling (2009)
Philip Roth
Jonathan Cape, 140pp
Philip Roth’s thirtieth novel arrives with much controversy. The man often dubbed – by myself included – America’s Greatest Living Author – has written a book that for some is atrocious, for others another masterpiece of Roth’s late blossoming. I read it before reading a single review and my first instinct was one of immense praise – I am a Rothian, though, one of the converted. Much scorn was placed at this books door, especially in its treatment of sex and sexual activity. The lengthy ménage à trois with its graphic sexual detailing that occupies the centre of this novel being the truly decisive moment. William Skidelsky called it: “more an old man’s sexual fantasy dressed up in the garb of literature”, whilst Aravind Adiga called it “a voluptuous essay on extinction masquerading as a novel.” Whatever it is, The Humbling is a much debated book.
Simon Axler has “lost his magic”; a renowned stage actor he finds himself caught unstage, unable to act. He withdraws from public life, his wife leaves him (in a sentence) and checks into a psychiatric hospital. There he meets a woman whose husband is sexually abusing their daughter, and she asks Axler to kill him. He leaves the hospital and returns to an empty home – his agent tries to persuade him to return to the stage – he meets the lesbian daughter of an old friend whom he seduces and talks into the infamous three-way, is then rejected by her and ends his life. The Humbling, then, is action packed but at the same time condensed; Roth’s writing is like a scalpel. He knows how to cut.
This novel is a two hander between Axler and Pegeen, the voluptuous lesbian: both are people lost in the world. Axler his magic, Pegeen her partner who has become a man. He woos her with expensive coats, turns her from a dour type into a glamourous dominating woman; their sexual lust is immediate and, because this is Roth, comic. Because of Axler’s dodgy back, we learn that Pegeen “mounted him” and he guides her: “You’re on a horse. Ride it.” They begin to experiment: “he worked his thumb into her ass” and “later he put his cock in there”. (“‘Did it hurt?’ he asked her. ‘It hurt, but it’s you.’”)Then Pegeen unveils her range of erotic paraphernalia. Her green strap-on dildo proves no match for Axler’s penis, which Pegeen contemplates lovingly before telling him: “It fills you up… the way dildos and fingers don’t.” Some commentators have argued that Roth in these sections is misogynistic, too fantastical, but Axler allows Pegeen to dominate him, it is her that chooses him, the partner that joins them, and it is she that chooses to leave him. Axler is at her mercy. Axler is pathetic. It is the women here that are forceful. Axler wants to be filthy, but he is no match for Pegeen.
If one removed this sexual dalliance from The Humbling then one would have a very powerful short story about ageing and the nature of performance – but by including this sequence, which is all about performance and ageing – The Humbling becomes a greater work; its canvas is expanded. It reveals again Roth as the master craftsman of American letters. The sex may seem unnecessary, and I’m sure it will at least be nominated for the bad sex in fiction award, but it is absolutely essential to understanding these characters and the themes of this novel, and of Roth’s recent oeuvre. The Humbling is absolute proof of Roth’s genius.