''The Anatomy Lesson'' is a 1983 novel by American author

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

. It is the third novel from Roth to feature

Nathan Zuckerman Nathan Zuckerman is a fictional character created by the writer Philip Roth, who uses him as his protagonist and narrator, a type of alter ego, in many of his novels. Character Roth first created a character named Nathan Zuckerman in the novel '' ...

as the main character.

Summary

Having buried his father in the previous novel ''

Zuckerman Unbound ''Zuckerman Unbound'' is a 1981 novel by the American author Philip Roth. Nathan Zuckerman The novel resumes the story of Roth's fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman that was inaugurated by Roth's previous novel ''The Ghost Writer''. Themes Like ...

'', Zuckerman finds himself facing middle age and an undiagnosable pain. The mysterious ailment has him laid up and keeps him from his regime of writing. Barred by pain from writing and bored by inactivity, Zuckerman's mind is free to wander anxiously over the memories of his failed marriages and relationships with family members. In a desperate burst of nostalgia and ambition, Zuckerman resolves to return to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, his alma mater, in order to pursue medical school.

Critical reception

''The Anatomy Lesson'' is the least well-received of the Zuckerman trilogy ''

Zuckerman Bound ''Zuckerman Bound'' is a trilogy of novels by Philip Roth, originally published in 1985. Plot Each of the books follows the struggles and writing career of Roth's novelist alter ego Nathan Zuckerman. Contents The bound trilogy consists of: * ...

'', though the book was a finalist for the

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, established in 1976,The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' in 1984,

Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir '' ...

wrote, "'The Anatomy Lesson' may be the third and final installment of the Zuckerman trilogy, but it is also Roth's second consecutive novel about what success is like. Such fixity!... He has now written two autobiographical novels about the consequences of writing autobiographical novels," adding, "no modern writer, perhaps no writer, has taken self-examination so far and so literally." In ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'',

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

was more complimentary finding, "The postmodernist writer's bind is expressed in flat authoritative accents reminiscent of Hemingway...Throughout, a beautiful passion to be honest propels the grinding, whining paragraphs. Yet, though lavish with laughs and flamboyant invention, ''The Anatomy Lesson'' seemed to this Roth fan the least successful of the Zuckerman trio, the least objectified and coherent."

''Zuckerman Bound''

The first and second books in the Zuckerman trilogy are 1979's ''

The Ghost Writer ''The Ghost Writer'' is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his ''Zuckerman Bound'' ...

'' and 1981's ''

''. The three were collected and republished in 1985 as ''

''. Republication moved some critics to reassess this third entry; again in ''The New Yorker'', John Updike wrote, "In toto, ''Zuckerman Bound'' shows the author's always ebullient invention and artful prose at their most polished and concentrated, the topic of authorship clearly being, to this author, a noble one." In ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'',Harold Bloom, "His Long Ordeal By Laughter", ''The New York Times Book Review'', May 19, 1985. critic Harold Bloom said of the three collected Zuckerman novels, "''Zuckerman Bound'' merits something reasonably close to the highest level of esthetic praise for tragicomedy."

External links

Harold Bloom on ''Zuckerman Bound''

References

Novels by Philip Roth 1983 American novels Farrar, Straus and Giroux books {{1980s-novel-stub