PATRIMONY

Philip Roth's "death of a life insurance salesman" won the National Book Critic's Circle Award in 1991. The insurance salesman was his father. This great work is made greater still by George Guidall's magnificent performance. Guidall plays the dying father with an outrage that is both heroic and slightly absurd. The novelist is horrified by the old man, but also deeply in love. Losing life, Herm Roth decides to save cash. He fires the cleaning lady and stops the newspaper. Robbed at gunpoint, he advises the escaping felon: "Now don't go spend it on crap." This clear-eyed but adoring book asks a single question: "Why should a man die at all?" When the man helps the boy, they both laugh. When the boy helps the man, they both cry. B.H.C. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 04]