“ Roth Returning to Newark to Get History Award” (Marjorie Keyishian, The New York Times) Frequently angry and obstinate, he bullies his girlfriend.Exhibit: “ Philip Roth: An Exhibit of Photos from a Lifetime” (Newark Public Library) In describing his father's joy at telling his stories, Philip writes, "To be alive, to him, is to be made of memory-to him if a man’s not made of memory, he’s made of nothing." Despite all of Philip's efforts to keep his father in good cheer, Herman does not always face his illness with dignity. Philip also encourages his father to share with him stories of his upbringing in Newark, New Jersey. The two discuss the New York Mets, Herman's favorite team. He accompanies Herman to his social club where they suffer through a hilariously bad string quartet. Philip tries his best to cheer up Herman. With that in mind, Herman and his family decide against surgery, and over the next year and a half, Herman slowly weakens. Philip and Herman are told that the probability of such a procedure is very low, and the chances for complications high. Because the brain tumor is very large, it will be extremely difficult, though not impossible, to remove. Although the tumor is technically benign, brain tumors of all kinds are highly dangerous because of how they compress the brain tissue. Philip recalls the grievous difficulty with which he relayed the diagnosis to his father, unable to disclose the full details. Rather than reveal the news directly to Herman, Dr. Meyerson, gives him an MRI and discovers a brain tumor. After visiting an ophthalmologist who expresses skepticism over the Bell's palsy diagnosis, Herman's family doctor, Dr. However, a few weeks later, his face is still paralyzed, and now, Herman cannot hear out of his right ear. At first, Herman is diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a generalized type of facial paralysis with an unknown cause but which is generally temporary. Thus begins a long, interminable series of doctor's visits. The word "patrimony" is defined as "property inherited from one's father." In 1987, at the age of eighty-six, Herman Roth wakes up paralyzed in half of his face. The winner of the National Book Critics Award for Autobiography, Patrimony is a "major achievement," according to The New York Times Book Review.
Unlike the majority of Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Philip Roth's most famous works, which are strictly fictional, Patrimony (1991) is an autobiographical story relating his father, Herman's fatal illness and eventual death from a brain tumor.
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