Nemesis Overview
Nemesis is a historical novel by author Philip Roth. It takes place in the summer of 1944. Eugene “Bucky” Cantor is a 23-year-old physical education instructor, and when a polio epidemic begins to spread through the city, Cantor attempts to protect his students and keep their parents calm. As the destruction of the epidemic increases, Cantor steadily transforms from calm and optimistic to grief-stricken and embittered. The novel explores themes of pestilence, grief, fear, identity, and history.
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Nemesis Study Guide
Philip Roth Biographies (5)
8,301 words, approx. 28 pages
In 1974, Philip Roth wrote a satirical novel about baseball which he entitled The Great American Novel. The title refers to the parodies of a number of classic American novels in the book, but it al...
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7,675 words, approx. 26 pages
One of the dominant voices of American-Jewish literature during the past two decades, Philip Roth has had an ambivalent, even troubled, response to the Jewishness of his congenial material. He was bor...
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21,971 words, approx. 74 pages
[This entry was updated by S. Lillian Kremer (Kansas State University) from her entry in DLB 173: American Novelists Since World War II, Fifth Series, pp. 202-234.]A major writer of twentieth-century ...
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1,227 words, approx. 5 pages
The American author Philip Roth (born 1933) used his Jewish upbringing and his college days for the basis of many of his novels and other works.Roth used his experiences in growing up in the Weequahic...
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12,812 words, approx. 43 pages
Biography EssayIn 1973, Philip Roth wrote a satirical novel about baseball which he entitled The Great American Novel. The title refers to the parodies of a number of classic American novels in the ...
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Philip (Milton) Roth
Philip Roth