Thread: Help me out (fellow students)

Originally Posted by Witchblade

I'm looking for a good English site about literature. I know a couple of great Dutch ones, but their information is limited to Dutch literature for the most part.

The ideal site would contain:
- summaries (most important)
- information about the book's theme
- some background information about the author and the context of his book in his works
- a review (not really important)

More specifically, I'm looking for a good summary of Philip Roth's Everyman. I just can't seem to find a damn summary of this book.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This probably won't help much Witch, but you could try typing your question into Find Articles - News, Magazine back issues & Reference on all topics . I used it to pass a number of courseworks at school. Its a site with thousand of journal articles, really good for cheating in academic studies.

Oh and I still have to read one more book for my English literature list. What would you recommend?

List of books I've already read so far:
- Kiterunner
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Lord of the Flies
- Animal Farm
- Everyman
- Enduring Love
- [need one more book here]

I hear Lord of the flies is good. Possibly Animal Farm.

I don't know if it counts but HG Wells "War of the Worlds" is ood, and if you get the right edition has analysis of the novel, which could be used for a school essay

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Oh and I still have to read one more book for my English literature list. What would you recommend?

List so far:
- Kiterunner
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Lord of the Flies
- Animal Farm
- Everyman
- Enduring Love
- ???

Lord of the Flies. If I were going to have to pick from that list that would be the one, for sure.

Good site, Goob. I bookmarked it, but I can't find a summary of Everyman on it. Great site to find reviews though.

I don't understand it. Normally it takes me less than five minutes to find a good summary of any random book, but this highly praised novel of Philip Roth seems to be invisible in the summary department.

Oh, my bad. That's the list of books I've already read. I'm looking for one more book that's not on the list. You're right though. Lord of the Flies was an amazingly good read.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Good site, Goob. I bookmarked it, but I can't find a summary of Everyman on it. Great site to find reviews though.

I don't understand it. Normally it takes me less than five minutes to find a good summary of any random book, but this highly praised novel of Philip Roth seems to be invisible in the summary department.

Observer review: Everyman by Philip Roth | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books

Don't say I'm not good to you Witch.

Search results

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Oh, my bad. That's the list of books I've already read. I'm looking for one more book that's not on the list. You're right though. Lord of the Flies was an amazingly good read.

Yeah, one of my favorite I was forced to read. lol.

What did you think of Kiterunner?

Hehe, I found that review too Goob. I got reviews aplenty, but a good summary is missing. The small summaries in the reviews don't cut it. Thanks for searching though!



Books automatically get a lower grade when I'm forced to read them. I'm thankful I wasn't in the class that was forced to read LOTF. I generally don't put books I had to read on my list, because I don't think I can give an objective view.
I didn't read Kiterunner. It's the only book on my list so far that I haven't read, but I've already had the interview about that one.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Hehe, I found that review too Goob. I got reviews aplenty, but a good summary is missing. The small summaries in the reviews don't cut it. Thanks for searching though!



Books automatically get a lower grade when I'm forced to read them. I'm thankful I wasn't in the class that was forced to read LOTF. I generally don't put books I had to read on my list, because I don't think I can give an objective view.
I didn't read Kiterunner. It's the only book on my list so far that I haven't read, but I've already had the interview about that one.

Thanks. It was on some list of books I could have read for a college class. Everyone said it was great, so I was wondering if I really missed anything...

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Hehe, I found that review too Goob. I got reviews aplenty, but a good summary is missing. The small summaries in the reviews don't cut it. Thanks for searching though!



Books automatically get a lower grade when I'm forced to read them. I'm thankful I wasn't in the class that was forced to read LOTF. I generally don't put books I had to read on my list, because I don't think I can give an objective view.
I didn't read Kiterunner. It's the only book on my list so far that I haven't read, but I've already had the interview about that one.

Yeah, I figured you might have.


Try this:

Source: Roth, Philip : Everyman
Novel (182 pp.)KeywordsAbandonment, Aging, Death and Dying, Empathy, Family Relationships, Father-Daughter Relationship, Heart Disease, Human Worth, Loneliness, Memory, Narrative as Method, Patient Experience, Suffering, Surgery, TimeSummaryThis short novel is the story of one man’s death, starting with his interment at the cemetery, where his daughter and older brother offer reminiscences over the coffin; and then dwelling on aspects of his life within which the seeds of death germinated and grew. The man himself is unnamed—Everyman—and his death is no different than any other. At the same time, this death is different because the dead person’s narrative voice remains behind to tell the story.
As a young boy in his father’s jewelry store, he fiddles around in a drawer of old broken watches that his father has accepted as trade-ins. The boy is a dreamer, an artist. But he goes into the advertising business to earn a living, rather than pursuing his first love, painting. He marries and divorces three times, becomes alienated from his sons by the first marriage, and winds up spending his relatively affluent, but bleak, retirement years in a New Jersey condo, maintaining at least some contact with his daughter Nancy. Meanwhile, his brother Howie becomes a fantastically successful international businessman still married to his wife of 45 years and close to his loving family.
Everyman’s brushes with death begin when he is still a child admitted to the hospital for a hernia repair and his roommate dies during the night. As a relatively young man, he experiences a close call when he collapses and is found to have a burst appendix and peritonitis. Later, he attends his father’s Orthodox Jewish funeral, where the mourners actively bury the coffin. In 1989 he experiences a massive heart attack, followed by coronary bypass surgery. In 1998 he is admitted for renal artery angioplasty. The next year he requires left carotid artery surgery. The next, placement of coronary artery stents. The next, insertion of a permanent defibrillator. Finally, he learns that the right carotid artery has now become obstructed. During the subsequent surgery, he dies: “He was no more, freed from being, entering into nowhere without even knowing it. Just as he’d feared from the start.” (p. 182)
CommentaryAt one point the narrator comments, "Should he ever write an autobiography, he’d call it 'The Life and Death of a Male Body.' " (p. 52) This book is a short version of that autobiography. Philip Roth writes with cold accuracy about everyman’s missteps and rationalizations, his hopes and fears, and finally, the shattering of hope and realization of fears: “Just as he feared from the start.” He never strays far from the inevitably deteriorating body. He never resorts to the spiritual or transcendental. His post-death consciousness is strictly fictional.

Roth, Philip : Everyman

That's the best one I've seen so far. I think I could fill that one in a bit more myself and it would suffice. Thanks, man!

sparknotes.com

pinkmonkey.com

If they are still around, its how i passed all my english classes in HS. I refuse to read books when they are forced on me.

Hot damn, those sites may not be easy to navigate in, but damn do they contain some good information! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much!

What better than to hear a summary of a book than from the Author himself...

NPR : Philip Roth Discusses 'Everyman'

sparknotes.com
cliffnotes.com

Originally Posted by Yanick

sparknotes.com

pinkmonkey.com

If they are still around, its how i passed all my english classes in HS. I refuse to read books when they are forced on me.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Oh and I still have to read one more book for my English literature list. What would you recommend?

List of books I've already read so far:
- Kiterunner
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Lord of the Flies
- Animal Farm
- Everyman
- Enduring Love
- [need one more book here]

The Kite Runner is excellent, i just read it.

Originally Posted by maniclion

What better than to hear a summary of a book than from the Author himself...

NPR : Philip Roth Discusses 'Everyman'

Good find, but it's an excerpt, not a summary.
Anyway, I finished my book report on Everyman. In short, "Very nicely written, but without a plot, it's not always interesting."


Cliffnotes.com is another great one. Thanks, danny.


I've heard a lot of good reviews about Kiterunner. Shame I already know the summary now.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Oh and I still have to read one more book for my English literature list. What would you recommend?

List of books I've already read so far:
- Kiterunner
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- Lord of the Flies
- Animal Farm
- Everyman
- Enduring Love
- [need one more book here]

Everyman! I hated that play. Good luck with that one dude!

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Oh, my bad. That's the list of books I've already read. I'm looking for one more book that's not on the list. You're right though. Lord of the Flies was an amazingly good read.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Great book, very chilling story.

EDIT: And i just found it for FREE in Wikisource, as its in the public domain:
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wikisource

Originally Posted by Gazhole

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Great book, very chilling story.

EDIT: And i just found it for FREE in Wikisource, as its in the public domain:
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wikisource

Awesome, I'll check that one out. Either I'll read that one or put Harry Potter #7 on it and bash the crap out of it in the review.

Hey Witch, I think it's amazing that you are reading Classic Engilsh Lit as part of school considering it is not your first language. Impressive.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Awesome, I'll check that one out. Either I'll read that one or put Harry Potter #7 on it and bash the crap out of it in the review.

Either way, Dorian Gray is a good read. Even if you dont add it to your list, id reccomend it to read at some point .

And kudos, you speak English better than some English people i know :P.

I'm going to take Cambridge's Fluency Test in December (damn expensive BTW). I made a practice test and scored straight A's.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

I'm going to take Cambridge's Fluency Test in December (damn expensive BTW). I made a practice test and scored straight A's.

Lol, you probably have better enunciation than me then. Stupid Welshness...

I still have an accent. You can tell I'm not a native English speaker. My English is less fluent.

Oh and I had to look enunciation (pronounciation!) up.