Play Book Tag discussion

Nemesis by Philip Roth - 4* - My Review

Bucky Cantor is a twenty-three-year-old playground director in Newark's Weequahic school district during the summer of 1944. A polio epidemic breaks out, and Bucky tries his best to protect the kids. To protect Bucky, his girlfriend Marcia asks him to leave Newark and take a position at a summer camp in the Poconos. He is torn about what to do.

It is set at a time when it was not specifically known what caused polio. They had ideas, but the lack of specific knowledge led to much speculation and wild accusations. As much as Bucky tries to protect the kids, he has no control over the spread of the disease and feels great guilt when some of them contract polio. The perspective switches between Bucky (during the crisis), an unnamed older narrator's reflections on what these events meant for everyone involved.

It portrays the very real fears faced by families of the time. Their children could get sick and even die for no apparent reason. The central theme concerns the arbitrary nature of suffering and the desire to assign blame when faced with random catastrophe. It feels very relevant to today’s controversies over vaccines. Polio is obviously a disease that has been eradicated due to widespread vaccinations, and this book is a good reminder of what previous generations faced.