The Anatomy Lesson

“The Anatomy Lesson is a ferocious, heartfelt book … lavish with laughs and flamboyant inventions.” —John Updike, The New Yorker

The third novel in the Zuckerman series, The Anatomy Lesson is a masterful tragicomedy that follows Roth's famed protagonist into his darkest days and most hilarious encounters as he comes down with a mysterious affliction.

At forty, Nathan Zuckerman begins exhibiting strange symptoms: a pain emerges in his neck and works its way down his body, finally taking over his spirit. He can barely move, much less write, and all his doctors are baffled. Zuckerman turns to liquor, weed, and painkillers to cope, as well as submitting to the lavishing attentions of four women who ply him with food, stories, and sexual favors. As time stretches on and the pain will not abate, Zuckerman's quest for relief escalates into wilder and more confused adventures until he can hardly tell the difference between the symptoms and the treatment.