August Already? Philip Roth

      I am stunned to find that August 1 is just a day away. Wow! As always,  I awoke early this morning, I was surprised to find that it was still dark at 5:00a., I guess that means before we know it, it will become dark at 5:30p. I much prefer DST. I think I read that the powers that be, may be thinking of DST 365 days a year. That would not change nature's cycle, but we would no longer have to "Spring back, Fall ahead".

A couple of weeks ago I read Philip Roth's "The Human Stain". Since Roth generally writes about subjects close to his heart, I do wonder about the protagonist in THS. Of course, I have my own personal thoughts about this character.  I went online to check out Roth information, I did not look for a personal Philip Roth web site, because I knew that he would not have one. I did find this site which is some kind of Philip Roth society  http://orgs.tamu-commerce.edu/rothsoc/ . I discovered Roth when I took "Letting Go" from the Newark library, later I read Goodbye Columbus. These novels were my introduction to the city of Newark. I had heard of the streets, but did not yet know where they were--many are now gone.

The Human Stain's, Coleman Silk lives in East Orange with his family. Silk, a black man, separates from his family when he decides to pass for white to have a better life. Years later, when he visits his mother again in East Orange, she calls him a prisoner. She says, "you are as white as snow and yet you think like a slave." I felt sad and somehow troubled by this. I finally finished watching the film, it took me days to get through it, am not sure why. It is not a movie that I would watch again. There are times when something or a subject is simply too much.  After reading the novel I did pull out my picture of Roth and the members of NJPAC Women's Board. He is standing in the middle of us, I have on my power red jacket. I am looking at the photo again and just noticed that the Newark Museum Price's are in the photo also.