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| PHILIP ROTH (1933-) |
"Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts." | | Birthplace
New Jersey, US
Education
Roth did his Master's degree and PhD work at Chicago University.
Other jobs
He enlisted in the army and worked in the Washington Public Information Office; he has combined university teaching with writing.
Did you know?
The improbably named Swede Levov, put-upon hero of American Pastoral, was discovered to have a real-life counterpart with a spookily similar biography.
Critical verdict
The early part of Roth's career concentrated on the American Jewish experience; more recently he has focused on the waning days of the great American middle-aged male. He is fond of characters named Philip Roth, and often uses biographical events, filtered through his alter-ego narrator Nathan Zuckerman (In Deception, both Roth and his then wife appear by name and profession, she "remarkably uninteresting"). Portnoy's Complaint, maybe the only great masturbation novel, introduced his trademark style of sexual honesty mixed with shame.
Recommended works
Portnoy's Complaint; Sabbath's Theatre
Influences
Saul Bellow
Now read on
Bernard Malamud, Morecai Richler, Martin Amis (for self-referentialism). See also Claire Bloom's Leaving A Doll's House, about her relationship with Roth (he comes out badly, to say the least).
Adaptations
Goodbye Columbus was filmed in 1969 by Larry Peerce and Portnoy's Complaint by Ernest Lehman in 1972, both as sex comedies.
Recommended biography
The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography focuses novelistically on discrete episodes from the author's life (which may, of course, not be the facts at all). Roth's Patrimony: A True Story deals with the death of his father; I Married a Communist also contains biographical elements. Hermione Lee has written an excellent biography, Philip Roth.
Criticism
Conversations with Philip Roth (ed George J Searles)
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