Roth, too, would like you to think that Simon Axler is powerless over his lot in life, but that doesn’t wash. He’s a famous 65-year-old actor who can no longer go on stage without embarrassing himself. Neither, this being a Roth novel, can he help himself when his friends’ beautiful lesbian daughter, 25 years his junior, seduces him. Talk about pulling strings.
Every once in a while Roth lets loose with a line that has the sting and power of a Roger Federer forehand. But for the most part the prose is as predictable as the plot, leaving you to agree with both the writer and the protagonist: “This is the stuff not of high tragedy, but of the funny papers.”
So if you want the scoop on tragedy and happiness, the ordinary and extraordinary, at least this time around, go ask Alice.
Related:
2009: The year in books, Tall tales, Lions and lambs, More 
- 2009: The year in books
Here, listed alphabetically by author, are 10 of the best books the Phoenix reviewed in 2009.
- Tall tales
This fall brings fiction and poetry lovers new treats from old friends.
- Lions and lambs
The season is notable for the return to bookstores of canonical names like Atwood, Ginsberg, Kinnell, le Carré, Munro, Pynchon, and Vidal plus a fair share of younger lions like Eggers, Julavits, and Muldoon.
- Positively Phil
We all know Philip Roth’s preoccupations.
- Good reads
According to the Greeks, spring is the season of rebirth, when Persephone was released from Hades and mom Demeter celebrated with flowers.
- Away from Her
Sarah Polley’s feature-directing debut boasts outstanding performances, but she’s confused Alice Munro’s elegantly straightforward structure.
- The Paris Review Interview, Vol. 1 introduction by Philip Gourevitch
Picador, 524 pages, $16
- Elegy
Cruz, who bares all in her finest performance since her days as Pedro Almodóvar’s muse.
- War, peace, and Robert Pinsky
Every few years, a fall publishing season emerges that should remind us that Boston could be the literary epicenter of America.
- Looking for a love
Your eyes met across the (bar/theater/bath house).
- Everybody hurts
"I don't usually find myself thinking anything's too fucked up," says Sherman. "I write what I want to."
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Media, Alice Munro, Alice Munro, More
, Media, Alice Munro, Alice Munro, Philip Roth, Philip Roth, Roger Federer, Books and Literature, Too Much Happiness, Less
