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Indignation

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Indignation

By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Ray Chase
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About this listen

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.

©2008 Philip Roth (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Korean War

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I had never heard of Roth before audible suggested it to me. It recommended this book in between me working my way through Vonnegut and Bukowski, and I must say that, in my mind, this is exactly where Roth fits.

Not as crass and self destructive as Bukowski, a little more realism than Vonnegut, but just as talented and enjoyable as both of them.

An unexpected delight

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The character era are believable and the story itself is a tragicomedy interesting and reminiscent of Chekhov in that it is sometimes the every day things in life that break us as human beings. Roth is a tremendous writer. So had to explain why so I won’t bother. Please listen to this...thanks. Vicki

Very good story

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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

Other people’s weakness can destroy you

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I love Philip Roth's writing and I was not let down this time either. Performance was good too, even though I felt that maybe the voice sounded a bit too mature for the 20 years of the protagonist.

Good read

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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.

surprisingly good

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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.

Another magnificent Bellow

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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

Amazing Narrator! Solid period novel

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Enjoyed this book and was free!
Short and to the point, no waffling, and a good engrossing story.

Good listen

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Enjoyed the writing very much and the story left me intrigued and eager to find out what would happen.

First time I've come across a Phillip Roth Book

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Short but sweet, thoroughly enjoyable. Great characterisation. good story. Great narration. Listen and I doubt you'll be disappointed

Another a Roth triumph

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