Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 October 1977 — Page 14

! The Book POST (D ■q The Professor of Desire, bv Philip Roth. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 263 ^ p. $8.95. A new novel by Roth is something in the nature of an event. But Mr. Roth has been quoted in the New York Times as having said, in an interview, ‘Tve largely lost touch with what's said about my work in print. I haven't read the reviews of my books since 1972, and I usually make it my business to be out of the country when a book appears.” One is tempted to quote the words of the late President Harry Truman to the effect that those who can’t stand the heat should stay out of the kitchen. Only very successful writers like Roth can be sure of a conPanzer tinuing market if they leave the kitchen. Others have to go out of business when they ignore the heat. Why should I, then, consider the event of publication more important than he does? I don't know why, but I do. PHILIP ROTH, being at least the moderately tall literary giant that he is, will, if he changes his mind about reading reviews, probably find that many reviewers will be looking for special messages and subtleties in his new book Subtleties there are but they are sbutleties of style, of which he is a master, and intellect, which he has in abundance. there are enough of both to make any book of his worth reading. As for content, the story is that of a professor of literature who spends the first half of the book whiningly obsessed with himself and his sexuality and a number of almost unbelievable characters who float nebulously into and out of his life. Neither the professor nor the others come to life or make the reader care about them. In the second part of the book, however, Roth himself comes to life and so do the remaining characters. Then his hero. Prof. Kepesh, moves us deeply with his unbounded love for his mother and his father; with his truly loving and compassionate feeling for Claire, the warmly-human and straightforward girl who is his final lover and victim and whom he knows in his heart he will eventually abandon; with his total involvement with his students; and with his brilliant capacity for reaching into the hearts and minds of Kafka, Chekhov, Tolstoi and others. The pages burn with meaning. THE FIRST HALF of the book regales us with Kepesh’s increasingly kinky sex life, told in the first person, present tense, on pages designed to look like Kafka, by a man almost dispassionately looking down on himself as the center of a cold “cauldron” of sexual diversion, subversion and perversion. In the second half of the book, Roth redeems himself magnificently. The Professor of Desire is a book that you will find it hard to remember a few days after reading it if you put it down halfway on. But if you read it to the end you may never forget it If I were Roth, I would rather read the reviews than the book jacket: “Among the variety of places that comprise this world of sensual possibilities are the Mountaintop resort hotel (the Borsht Belt--M.P.) where David Kepesh spends his boyhood, the college.. .where he begins his life as a passionate man by describing himself to coeds he hopes to seduce with Lord Byron's dictum, ‘studious by day, dissolute by night;’ a basement flat in London, where he lives with two Swedish girls, one of whom he thinks fleetingly of turning into a prostitute , later as a professor of literature, takes up with a young woman in flight from her own adventurous years in the Far East, which culminated in a narrowly aborted murder plot against her lover's wife,” and on and on to her sensual abandon and his own temporary impotence and psychoanalysis. Do you remember the old dime novels, or are you too young? Few reviewers will do the book that much injustice. It would have been more in keeping with Roth's undeniable stature to describe the Professor in terms of Cabell’s hero, Kennaston, seeking in Poictesme, in the nights, the unattainable, elusive and indescribably lovely Ettare. • Dictionary for Children. Macmillan. 724 p. $10.95 The perfect Chanukah gift for your children and grandchildren. And it won't do you any harm to get one for yourself. This is a beautifully produced re-issue, at the original price, of a valuable addition to anyone's library—the dictionary that has already been purchased by a quarter of a million of undoubtedly satisfied customers. • TO BE REVIEWED IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS The Landsmen, by Peter Martin. Southern Illinois University Press. A novel. Honor the Promise. America's Commitment to Israel, by Robert F. Drinan. Doubleday. The Thirteenth Man. by Murray Teigh Bloom. Macmillan. A novel. Refiner's Fire, by Mark Helprin. Knopf. A novel. The Lifelong Learner, by Ronald Gross. Simon & Schuster. Selfdevelopment.

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Dr. Rose Franzblau

6-Month-Old Feels Separation

QUESTION:

My husband and I are separated and we’ll probably get a divorce 3oon. We have a son, 6 months old, in whom my husband isn’t inter-

w ested.

t My husband mwas a salesman «who never disjj J cussed anything with me. When Franzblau the baby was born he lost his job. At first he stayed home, looked at the newspaper advertisements, but did nothing about it. When I criticized him, he finally looked for a job and got one. This was two months after the baby was born. It was then that he

left.

SHOULD 1 LET my husband visit the baby when he wants to? Knowing him as I do, he may say' he’ll come and then never show up. We are moving in with my parents shortly. My parents are furious'* with him I don’t know how' they feel about his coming to- their house. I will have to work because my husband gives us very little.

ANSWER: Children are always hurt greatly by their parents’ divorce. However, the hurt is even greater if, in addition, they are used by the parents as a weapon with which to attack each other. When it is the husband who walks out, the wife not only feels deserted but resents that she is left alone to take on all the responsibilities of rearing the children. She is furious with her husband for having turned out to be such an inadequate mate and parent, but deep dow n she is even more furious at herself for having made such a poor choice. She then reasons that she knew he was weak but hoped that her love for him would change him. Her motivations were generous and loving and it was he who failed by not responding positively to them. A child who loses a parent, whether by death or divorce, always wonders what is wrong with him that he does not evoke enough love in the parent to keep him home. With this psychological amputation he sees himself as inferior to his peers. WHEN THE FATHER really loves the child even though he has stopped loving the mother, the attention he gets from the father who no longer lives at home dissipates some of these anxieties and remedies the poor image he has of himself. But, when the father has many serious problems, they may present a very disturbing and threatening picture to the little one, in which case it is best for the child not to be exposed to him. When he grows up and asks questions, he can then be told as much of the truth as is healthy for him to know. Fortunately, your little one was very young when his father left. An infant of his age wants the mother around most of the time. However, loving relatives, particularly grandparents, can partially fill the void caused by an absentee father Your moving in with your parents will make your little boy feel surrounded by loving grown-ups. HOWEVER, too many changes taking place at one time in the child's life can be upsetting. Although intellectually he may not know what is going on, he senses the different atmosphere and activity in his home. The move into

your parents’ home at an age when he is becoming more aware of people, will represent another adjustment for him to make. Until he adjusts to this move, it would be wisest for you to stay home fulltime. When he is settled and is eating and sleeping well, then you can return to work on a part-time basis. Once you and your husband have worked out the separation and have been divorced, he may want to see his child more often. In that case, if he isn't a bad influence, he Just Between Us

should be permitted to do so. An expert could help him learn what a child goes through at such a time and how to handle his son. Feeling that he is doing something to become a better father may actually make him a good one. When you remarry, hopefully you will make a good choice this time. Your little son may feel at first that he has lost half of his mother to the new man in her life. But when he gets love and attention from him. he will feel that now he has a full-time father at last.

Oh, Those Commercials!

By HELEN MINTZ If you’ve paid any attention to TV commercials, you must be aware they only ^ reaching only onehalf of their audience? How dare they assume the whole listening Helen audience showers in the morning! What about how the other half lives? The “before bed” bathers. The soakers. Aren’t the writers imaginative enough to come up with soap commercials that soothe the weary bones and softsoap you to such relaxation you barely make it through youi prayers, no less hit the pillow? I HATE to disillusion anyone but...I can manage to wake up alert, cheerful and get off to a good start without lathering up with Brand X’s soap film, or Brand Y’s mini-vacation to the Irish countryside. or Brand Z’s scientifically proportioned one-quarter cleansing cream. Notice how you never see anyone taking a shower with a shower cap on? Not glamorous. By their standards, everyone starts from scratch, lathering up their hair and immediate extremities. There’s no privacy anymore. Nothing is a secret (except the deodorant) or a mystery (except, “Who took the roll-on?”). We wash, we spray, we deodorize, we sniff, we quench. we’re propositioned, and then hopefully we have an Aviance night. Besides using the perfume, it might help to have your blouse unbuttoned one more than necessary. LIFE IS PICTURED for the young and the beautiful If you color your hair, the cut off seems to

be age thirty. A woman’s hygienic needs are spelled out and simplified by the ad men. Hemorrhoidal preparations that reduce swelling and stop itch are somehow directed to the male audience. Advice on constipation relief you get from a librarian in a mobile library. They always have the little woman asking for the answer. Obviously, it’s not manly for a man to admit he really needs prunes. The right toothpaste is the answer for all ages. Geared to the younger set is the old chalk lady, who in her spare time babysits. The middleager reads labels backwards and then admits with total surprise, “Wow, it’s good-old whatever and I’ve been using it for years.” The older set watches their dentures disintegrate in a blue solution along with the family pearls. THEN THERE’S toilet tissue. How many times in your life have you passed someone’s front lawn where they were having a countdown with a thousand-sheet winner? You'd think it was the toilet tissue Olympics the way they get into it and root against the roll with five hundred. You watch them squeeze it, smell it. count it, but what’s never mentioned is how it’s escalated in price! Commercials sell love, sex, romance, cleanliness and euphoria. If you’re sick and ailing, don’t expose yourself to these healthy beautiful-peopled commercials. It’ll make you sicker. Personally, my favorite commercial is the one that says you’ll live to 105. But you have to be ready to eat the stuff, move to Soviet Georgia, and know how to dance. And you don't have to be beautiful! Check it out!

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