This is a wonderful piece of writing. Highly recommended.

Swede Levov tries to glide through life, not in the sense of not working hard - he does - but in these sense of just minimizing friction. If you don't bite life, it won't bite you. Live and let live.

But, of course, life exacts its prices, and there's not a damn thing Swede can do about it. Life on Earth involves friction, destruction, cost, loss. Eventually, though I like how lightly Roth touches on this, so matter-of-factly and rather beside the point, death. No, this is more about life and living, the seductive dream of making it through unscathed, and the sheer impossibility of realizing it.

Loved it.