Indignation by Philip Roth

I very much enjoyed this excellently written and thought provoking book about a gifted young undergraduate student, Marcus, in 1950s America, trying to find his identity outside of his small, Jewish family. The reader discovers early on that Marcus is dead and seemingly stuck in endless remuneration over his short life. This ensures that the plot, while engrossing, leaves space to really explore the character development. Marcus is a complex and sometimes uncomfortable character who it is easy to be intrigued by but hard to really understand. Ultimately this book is about the randomness of tragedy and that does make it quite dark, but it is still a very good book.