Just finished I Married a Communist, and American Pastoral before that. And of course I'll go ahead and read Human Stain next, just to finish up the trio. I actually really enjoyed Communist, even though it garners no mention in this thread other than g00blar saying it's the worst of the Zuckermans!
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
I Married A Communist includes a reference to two gangsters named Big Pussy and Little Pussy, a year before The Sopranos began.
― caro's johnson (Eazy), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
i used to feel like american pastoral was the best book i ever read. now i rate a couple things above it, but it's still in my top 5 of all time.
― Mordy, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:30 (eleven years ago) link
I've twice tried I Married A Communist and given up in boredom within fifty pages or so. It's very odd, I've never remotely had that problem with any of his other stuff.
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:42 (eleven years ago) link
I love I Married a Communist. No way the worst of the Zuckermans. Better than The Human Stain, The Anatomy Lesson and The Prague Orgy for starters. Maybe it's just because I'm fascinated by the Red Scare but I couldn't see why it was so disliked.
Recently read Nemesis, which I adored - his best since American Pastoral imo. Would rather read about wartime New Jersey than horny old writers any day.
Re: Ismael's 2009 question, my Jewish grandfather lived in Israel and I've been there a couple of times so the themes in The Counterlife resonated with me even though it's mostly huge chunks of debate crowbarred into the mouths of thinly drawn characters. What really struck (and depressed) me was how little the debate has changed since he wrote it.
― Get wolves (DL), Thursday, 10 May 2012 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
One for Barthes, Alfred and anyone else who's down on authorial intent.
My interlocutor was told by the “English Wikipedia Administrator”—in a letter dated August 25th and addressed to my interlocutor—that I, Roth, was not a credible source: “I understand your point that the author is the greatest authority on their own work,” writes the Wikipedia Administrator—“but we require secondary sources.”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/09/an-open-letter-to-wikipedia.html
― Get wolves (DL), Friday, 7 September 2012 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
Damn.
― Mr. Que, Friday, 7 September 2012 17:06 (eleven years ago) link
If you haven't read the Human Stain Roth's letter contains a shitload of spoilers BTW. Fascinating if you have though - I always thought the "spooks" misunderstanding was a weak premise - I didn't realise it was true.
― Get wolves (DL), Friday, 7 September 2012 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
Comments1 comment |
PHILIP! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE MORE! YOU'VE BEEN ISOLATED IN THE COUNTRY FOR TOO LONG!!!! GO GET LAID!!!!Posted 9/7/2012, 1:04:00pm by comancheria
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 7 September 2012 17:31 (eleven years ago) link
Good to read something new from Roth. He was at a pace of a novella per year in the late 2000s. I was wondering if he was still writing.
― Earth, Wind & Fire & Alabama (Eazy), Friday, 7 September 2012 18:17 (eleven years ago) link
There's been a response:
http://quominus.org/archives/979
http://quominus.org/archives/981
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 16 September 2012 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
― Earth, Wind & Fire & Alabama (Eazy), Friday, September 7, 2012 7:17 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
???
― just sayin, Sunday, 16 September 2012 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
does gooblar still post under some name? i saw his book in the library
― thomp, Sunday, 16 September 2012 21:26 (eleven years ago) link
What book's this? Would read.
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 September 2012 21:29 (eleven years ago) link
g00blar, d4v1d. the major phases of philip roth (london: continuum, 2011)
― thomp, Sunday, 16 September 2012 21:40 (eleven years ago) link
It'd better answer my 2009 question.
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 16 September 2012 21:45 (eleven years ago) link
i read the human stain in under 2 weeks because i wanted it to be over
― harbl, Thursday, 12 November 2009 17:56 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
wtf
― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Thursday, 4 October 2012 13:12 (eleven years ago) link
ruh roh
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/09/philip_roth_im_done/
Philip Roth is calling it a career.In an interview with a French publication called Les inRocks last month — which does not appear to have been reported in the United States — Roth, 78, said he has not written anything new in the last three years, and that he will not write another novel.“To tell you the truth, I’m done,” Roth told the magazine, in the most definitive statement he has ever made about his future plans. “‘Nemesis’ will be my last book.”(The interview is published in French; we used an Internet program to translate his quotes into English. We asked his publisher, Houghton Mifflin, for confirmation. They reached out to Roth this morning. “He said it was true,” said Lori Glazer, vice president and executive director of publicity.)Roth said that at 74, realizing he was running out of years, he reread all his favorite novels, and then reread all his books in reverse chronological order. “I wanted to see if I had wasted my time writing,” he said. “And I thought it was rather successful. At the end of his life, the boxer Joe Louis said: “I did the best I could with what I had.” This is exactly what I would say of my work: I did the best I could with what I had.“And after that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I do not want to read, to write more,” he said. “I have dedicated my life to the novel: I studied, I taught, I wrote and I read. With the exclusion of almost everything else. Enough is enough! I no longer feel this fanaticism to write that I have experienced in my life.”
In an interview with a French publication called Les inRocks last month — which does not appear to have been reported in the United States — Roth, 78, said he has not written anything new in the last three years, and that he will not write another novel.
“To tell you the truth, I’m done,” Roth told the magazine, in the most definitive statement he has ever made about his future plans. “‘Nemesis’ will be my last book.”
(The interview is published in French; we used an Internet program to translate his quotes into English. We asked his publisher, Houghton Mifflin, for confirmation. They reached out to Roth this morning. “He said it was true,” said Lori Glazer, vice president and executive director of publicity.)
Roth said that at 74, realizing he was running out of years, he reread all his favorite novels, and then reread all his books in reverse chronological order. “I wanted to see if I had wasted my time writing,” he said. “And I thought it was rather successful. At the end of his life, the boxer Joe Louis said: “I did the best I could with what I had.” This is exactly what I would say of my work: I did the best I could with what I had.
“And after that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I do not want to read, to write more,” he said. “I have dedicated my life to the novel: I studied, I taught, I wrote and I read. With the exclusion of almost everything else. Enough is enough! I no longer feel this fanaticism to write that I have experienced in my life.”
― but the boo boyz are getting to (Z S), Friday, 9 November 2012 17:42 (eleven years ago) link
as much as it it's a shame, cause a weaker Roth is still better than most writers, i don't think he can reinvent himself again to write a really great book. especially due to the fact that there is some truth to the claim that he writes the same novel again and again.
― nostormo, Friday, 9 November 2012 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
I have very little time for Roth's writing but I really respect this as an artistic decision (and not just because fewer new roth books might mean fewer longfrm pieces about how Important he is).
― of course you end up shazaming yourself (c sharp major), Friday, 9 November 2012 18:39 (eleven years ago) link
I have never objected when an artist announces retirement: it takes courage.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 November 2012 18:41 (eleven years ago) link
p.s this things should be taken with a grain of salt of course.a person who wrote all his life, and books WERE his life, might say one thing, and do something else..
― nostormo, Friday, 9 November 2012 18:41 (eleven years ago) link
If true, I'm glad he bowed out with Nemesis rather than The Humbling.
― Deafening silence (DL), Friday, 9 November 2012 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
if true, does it mean he definitely wont win the nobel prize now?
― nostormo, Friday, 9 November 2012 18:45 (eleven years ago) link
Well, I doubt the Nobel committee would have The Humbling and Exit Ghost in mind when honoring him.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 November 2012 18:51 (eleven years ago) link
I had a little think about the most fitting way to pour one out, then decided it's probably best not to bother.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 9 November 2012 18:54 (eleven years ago) link
exit ghost is radthis is like justin timberlake all over again
― absurdly pro-D (schlump), Friday, 9 November 2012 18:54 (eleven years ago) link
lol ismael
i really hope he circumvents this by just writing loads of non-fiction shit instead
― absurdly pro-D (schlump), Friday, 9 November 2012 18:55 (eleven years ago) link
as long as he wont "circumvents this by just writing loads of non-fiction shit instead"
― nostormo, Friday, 9 November 2012 18:59 (eleven years ago) link
an Autobiography would be nice though!
― nostormo, Friday, 9 November 2012 19:00 (eleven years ago) link
I wouldn't mind another Patrimony. Does he have another dying relative he can write about?
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 November 2012 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
himself?
― nostormo, Friday, 9 November 2012 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
too bad he already used the title The Dying Animal.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 November 2012 19:05 (eleven years ago) link
One of my favorite second winds. Still, what is the point of retiring publicly? Just don't write something. And then if you write something, no big deal.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 9 November 2012 19:37 (eleven years ago) link
i guess it's so that everyone will leave you alone for a while
― but the boo boyz are getting to (Z S), Friday, 9 November 2012 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
everybody, leave Philip Roth ALONE
Leave him alone on his mountain in upstate New York!
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 November 2012 19:47 (eleven years ago) link
By coincidence Gooblar's book arrived at my house this week. It's so beautifully bubblewrapped, I haven't dared open it.
― Ismael Klata, Friday, 9 November 2012 20:03 (eleven years ago) link
Still, what is the point of retiring publicly?Well, I guess if you get questions about it in an interview, you might as well say it? It's not like he issued a press release.Didn't he a year or two ago say he'd stopped reading novels too? Some rubbish about how he "wised up", iirc. Not too long before that, he talked about how he was rereading all those old favorites that he'd not read in years.
Uh, anyways, _Nemesis_ was a good 'un. Is this the point where we should start coming up with dumbass interpretations of it? Polio represents fiction and the Newark community is Philip Roth, and Cantor is, uh, "Philip Roth" the author. Ahem, yeah, I'm no lit major obv.
I wonder what goes on in an aging, famous author's head. Could totally understand worrying about some asshole publishing the shit you're just messing around with at the moment.
― Øystein, Friday, 9 November 2012 21:23 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/books/struggle-over-philip-roth-reflects-on-putting-down-his-pen.html?hp&_r=0
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 18 November 2012 15:42 (eleven years ago) link
the idea of writing standing up (i think hemingway said he did it, too?) is bizarre to me, but i'm not getting much done these days sitting down so maybe i should try it.
― THAT IS ONE BIG PIZZA (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Sunday, 18 November 2012 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
not quite as bizarre as richard powers's admission that he wrote whole novels in bed, but i think if i tried that i'd just nap a lot.
― THAT IS ONE BIG PIZZA (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Sunday, 18 November 2012 16:06 (eleven years ago) link
Roth seems pretty happy with life, I can't begrudge him his retirement.
― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 18 November 2012 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.historycommons.org/events-images/a589_rumsfeld_approves_memo_2050081722-7306.jpg
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 18 November 2012 16:12 (eleven years ago) link
like the article says, he had a better run in the last 15 years of his career than most writers get at any time, so yeah, enjoy playing with yr iphone phil, you earned it.
― THAT IS ONE BIG PIZZA (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Sunday, 18 November 2012 16:13 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/03/philip-roth-eightieth-birthday-celebration.html?mbid=social_retweet
― your fretless ways (Eazy), Thursday, 21 March 2013 14:28 (eleven years ago) link
i think the doc is available here, though it seems 2 say 'technical difficulties when i try to play it just now
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/philip-roth/film-philip-roth-unmasked/2467/
it's v good, as one of the co-directors mentions, it's mostly just roth talking abt his books, etc, which i cld prob listen 2 for 10 hrs tbh
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/philip-roth/film-comment-william-karel-co-writer-co-director/2565/
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 2 April 2013 15:07 (eleven years ago) link
also roth's own reaction to the doc
AM: What did Roth think about the final cut?
WK: When we sent him the finished film, we were anxious to know what his reaction would be. He replied to us with this delightful note:
I just finished watching it through. It’s very sad, really, isn’t it? But it’s well done and you all should be congratulated for your infinite patience and hard work and tact and taste and intelligence. I think it’s a fair and accurate portrait of this guy, and I have no complaints. And Mia is gorgeous, even if she isn’t allowed to tell all of mankind what a sweetheart I am. I thank you, Livia, and William, my shaggy-bearded Mickey Sabbath look-a-like, for doing an honorable and honest job. I gave the last interview of my life to the New York Times yesterday, about my retirement, which should result in a long story in the paper before the week is out, and I made certain to tell them about the program and when it will be aired. The struggle with writing is over. Hallelujah. I’m a free man. Free at last.–Philip Roth
NIXON: Roth is a bad man. He’s a horrible moral leper.
http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/nixon-asked-haldeman-philip-roth
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Thursday, 30 January 2014 21:22 (ten years ago) link
Funny. I'm reading the forced, confused When She Was Good.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 30 January 2014 21:32 (ten years ago) link