The Human Stain

This is a wonderful book, facinating, uncomfortable, and full of subtle humor.

The Human Stain is set around the fictional "Athena College" in western Masschusetts — a pretty thinly veiled Smith College. The main character was a Classics professor and a Dean for 40 years, until a comment he makes about 2 students who haven’t show up for class in the first 5 weeks of school, "Are they spooks?" is taken as racist. Ultimately, he resigns in fury and disgrace.

The main theme of The Human Stain is secrets. Every character has a secret that they would rather suffer extreme humiliation than reveal, even — perhaps especially — to those closest to them. And many of them DO suffer extreme humiliation, sometimes in their own minds, other times in the eyes of their community, but not necessarily in their own minds.

This book was made into a movie not long ago, which I haven’t seen. I can’t imagine the subtlety of the book successfully making the transition to the big screen. But I’ve heard that it was a good adaptation, so I may look for it. I liked being surprised by the plot twists and unfolding of the secrets in the book, so I would recommend the book first.