Three Acts

The Humbling by Philip Roth

65 year old Simon Axler has lost it. A famous actor who has lost all confidence on the stage, who has become the laughing stock to his once adoring audience, has lost his wife, and lost his will to live, vanishing "Into Thin Air" as this first of three parts is titled. The suicidal Axler checks himself into a mental hospital and after 26 days, is released. Thus begins Part II, "The Transformation". Axler is visited by the 40 year old lesbian daughter of long-ago actor friends, they fall in love, she for the first time with a man, and she 'transforms' him....giving him back his will to survive, lots of kinky sex, and the stirrings of desire to re-enter the acting world which he had given up on. I won't ruin "The Last Act" , Part III. Suffice to say that I read this book in a couldn't-put-it-down sitting. That's the powerful punch Philip Roth handed out. Excellent!