Mr. Roth wrote more lyrically, and some will say with greater sympathy, about the struggle of the libido against age, illness and despair in Sabbath's Theater and, indeed, in The Human Stain . There is no room for gallantry or pity in the claustrophobic novella under review. Kepesh himself has become coarse. Only then are you most cleanly alive and most cleanly yourself. Sex isn't just friction and shallow fun.
Sex is also the revenge on death.