"Really recently I've discovered the writing of Phillip Roth; I did not read his earlier works when I was younger but discovered him most recently with his novel called The Plot Against America, and then I've gone back and have begun to kind of fill in some of the gaps. And I'd seen the book The Dying Animal in the bookstores and finally picked up a copy and read it and was really quite drawn to it.
It's a short novel, might even be a novella, that tells a story about a character that reoccurs in two of his other novels, a professor named David Kepesh. In this particular one, it's about a Realm of Humans he has with an older student of his. He's oh, a professor who fancies himself a ladies' man, an older man in his 50's or late 50's and has relationships frequently with his students, until this one woman, an older/younger woman, shall we say, late 20's, stumbles into his classroom, and he becomes enchanted with here. And he discoveries in this relationship with her jealousy, and affection, and a connection to her different than what he had experienced before.
What then transpires is that a health problem arises. I won't go into great detail and spoil the plot, but they essentially separate and then come back together a short time afterwards and end up comforting each other in a beautiful way. I will also add that they have recently made a film version of this. They renamed it Elegy, with Ben Kingsley playing the professor and Penelope Cruz as the student.
It could be seen as being a bit sexist perhaps; he is someone who was certainly obsessed with women's bodies, particularly women's breasts, and that I would say gets a little old. I would imagine that there might be women who would be offended by this because of that. I find his writing style very engaging; I find his � the voice of these characters to be very interesting. He's an amazingly polished writer. I've read now I would say six novels of his, and he is masterful.
I would give this book four and a half out of five stars."
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