Nemesis: Lessons from a Polio Epidemic
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

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All epidemics threaten us and change us. Polio epidemics have literally paralyzed and disabled us. Is it the infectious agent or our reflexive fear, blame, and irrationality that is the greater danger? Phillip Roth, winner of the Pulitzer and Man Booker International Prizes and National Book Award, brings his skill with narrative and character to "Nemesis", a story of an athletic young man affected and infected by a polio epidemic in New Jersey in 1944. The New Yorker writes that this, his last book, "has the elegance of a fable and the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama". As we read and discuss this book we'll learn about the poliovirus, the way it spreads and affects those it infects, the prejudice and lies that accompany it, and how medicine has learned to prevent and potentially eradicate polio. We may also discuss some of Roth's short stories.