Epstein’s concern with succession echoes the focal tension of the Book of Genesis, continuity versus crisis, as time and again viable heirs prove hard to produce (barren and/or elderly parents) and harder to sustain (murderous brothers and natural disasters). Having discovered Michael’s relationship with Linda Kaufman, Epstein takes up with Linda’s mother, Ida.Īnother important structuring device in the story is the biblical motif that runs through it, as Roth carefully blends elements of the Book of Genesis with the myth of the American Dream. Indeed, Epstein’s affair commences in what appears to be an attempt to compete with his nephew. Epstein’s character is also developed in relation to Michael, who seems to be a younger version of Epstein himself. Epstein’s two children (Herbie, who dies at 11, two years before the age of religious maturity, and Sheila, the rebellious socialist) are contrasted with Sol’s son and daughter (Michael, the soldier, and Ruth, who is pretty and presumably obedient). Epstein is contrasted with his brother, Sol. The story is full of shifting sets of opposing pairs. When Epstein discovers that his nephew Michael, a soldier on leave from a nearby army base, is sexually involved with a young woman across the street, Epstein is driven to melancholy reflection over what was and what might have been he takes Michael’s youth and vigor as a challenge, offering us an early glimpse at Roth’s most fully developed dirty old man, Mickey Sabbath of Sabbath’s Theater. His once-beautiful wife, Goldie, sags and nags his daughter, Sheila, “a twenty-three-year old woman with ‘a social conscience!’ ” (205), and “her fiance, the folk singer” (203), fail to share his values his brother and one-time business partner has become estranged, moving out of town “with words” (206) and the son who would succeed him, carrying on the family name and taking over the family business, died of polio as a child.

At age 59, he finds himself experiencing a postmidlife crisis. Lou Epstein, the eponymous narrator of “Epstein,” is having a hard time.

Short stories by philip roth