Indignation by Philip Roth: book review

Indignation by Philip Roth (2008) is set in 1951-1952 in Ohio, America, during the Korean War.

Marcus Messner is nineteen years old and an A-grade student at Ohio’s Wineburg College. He was originally enrolled in a college in his hometown of Newark but changed college to get away from his parents, particularly his father, a hard-working butcher paranoid that his son Marcus will be drafted into the war and be killed in action.

Marcus just wants to do well in college – to keep to himself – even refusing to join a fraternity. The Dean of Men, Mr. Caudwell, calls Marcus into his office, concerned that he is not involved in college social life.

Marcus is indignant. He even thinks indignation is “the most beautiful word in the English language: in-dig-na-tion!” What is Marcus indignant about? What fills him with anger about his unfair treatment? Is this indignation righteous?

The setting over the duration of a year is the college, and characters are sparce – father, mother, Olivia – a colleague girlfriend, his roommates, and the college Dean. The novel is about decisions in life, historical forces, parental pressure, gaining experience in relationships, folly and courage, love and mistakes, and loss and death. Beautifully written, easy-to-read, hard not to grasp the urgency of Roth’s language as Marcus struggles to find his own voice in troubling times, and poignant to the end – but abrupt.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.

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