“My Father’s Face”: Judaism, God, and Ritual Practice in Philip Roth’s Everyman, Indignation, and Nemesis

Abstract

This article is about the occurrence and centrality of distinctly Jewish ideas and ritual practices in Philip Roth’s Nemesis (2010), Indignation (2008), and Everyman (2006). In these three novels, Roth constructed characters whose existential crises most often come during or when meditating upon moments of Jewish ritual or Jewish theological expression, and what emerges is that the when, where, and how moments in which Roth’s protagonists interact with Judaism are particularly Judaic. When they are practicing Jewish ritual or speaking in Jewish terms, Roth’s characters end up creating meaning through what Stephen Kepnes calls the great theatrical performance of Judaism.