I recently finished Exit Ghost by Phillip Roth.

He says it's his last book in the Nathan Zuckerman series of books he has written. And I can see how that would be so. The book highlights the enigma and the illusions of aging and losing ones youthful powers to the passing years. Terry Gross on NPR interviewed Roth and she didn't seem to get it at all. But she, of course, is a young woman, and not a declining, aging, ailing, elderly man. Here Zuckerman is a man who still can get an absolutely huge "crush" on a younger woman! As delusional as that is, he knows full well that on so many levels he can't live up to his desires! But it feels so f.....g good to feel those desires and emotions once more. Eventually, reality seeps slowly in---and then HE KNOWS. Joseph Campbell used to talk about the eyes being the scouts for the more carnal side of us. I can vouch for that. Even us old men like "looking" and hoping for the actual insanity of the feeling one gets that you are embarking on the lovely path of love --- even though nothing actual can be accomplished. I think the "ghost" of the memories and the actualities of youthful adventures is what is departing as a ghostly presence in the title of this recent book by Roth.

It is a fine read---if you are ready for it.

Art Thieme