PATRIMONY by Philip Roth
A True Story
Winner - National Bk Critics Circle Award.
This is a heart warming story of a Jewish father and son. The author's father has been diagnosed incorrectly, as suffering from Bell's Palsy, a viral infection that causes paralysis, usually temporary, to one side of the face. But the father thinks that he has suffered a stroke like his own late father. Eventually he loses hearing in his right ear and also his sight partially in both eyes , and is only able to drink with a straw; otherwise the drink ran out the paralyzed half of his mouth.
As the story unfolds, the author goes on to describe his father during his younger days: a healthy, robust, powerful leader, father and husband.
He writes about the time his father gave away the author's prized stamp collection without his permission; the time the author's mother was sixty and his father sixty three, when his mother was suddenly faced with the stark reality that her freedom was to be forever taken away. All these years she a Jewish immigrant's daughter, had managed her household without any interferance. Then when the author's father retired, he began to control everything about Philip's mother's management of the household affairs. This forces her to confess to her son that if she was given a chance, she would want to divorce her husband. Yet she loved him ardently.
He writes about the time his father gave away the author's prized stamp collection without his permission; the time the author's mother was sixty and his father sixty three, when his mother was suddenly faced with the stark reality that her freedom was to be forever taken away. All these years she a Jewish immigrant's daughter, had managed her household without any interferance. Then when the author's father retired, he began to control everything about Philip's mother's management of the household affairs. This forces her to confess to her son that if she was given a chance, she would want to divorce her husband. Yet she loved him ardently.
Philip Roth the author, goes on to describe his father as an obsessively stubborn and overbearingly bossy person. He narrates an incident when his mother tells his father that she could not walk any further, he, the father, stubbornly encourages her to walk a distance saying that it is good for her. This eventually leads to her death.
Philip goes on to describe his feelings for his father, from that of a cold one which transforms into filial piety and unconditional love. As he struggles with his own problems, he writes about what was really wrong with his father and the time his father became a child once again allowing even the basic needs to be performed by his son.
This story is about the vulnerability of love, anxiety, dread and the survivalist tenacity. Those of us who read this book will learn to appreciate our own parents no matter what characteristics they posses. We who think that we have the worst set of problems will learn to appreciate the lives we live and be tenacious and pragmatic leaders and will be prompted to look for ways to put ourselves in the shoes of others thus becoming a blessing to those around us.
This will make an interesting read. You will find it in any of the National Library Branches in Singapore.
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