Philip Roth: Novels and Stories 1959-1962: Goodbye, Columbus & Five Short Stories / Letting Go (Library of America)
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
Great writers never die, they just fade away Literature and longevity make poor companions. If most writers' reputations are made, or at least begun, before the age of 40, then very few novelists put many runs on the scoreboard after 70. Arguably, they can even start to damage their reputations, as anguished fans concede that their idols have feet of clay. Philip Roth is often cited as a great contemporary...
Tripping Toward Lucidity (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
So my birthday is coming up on November 10 th. The big 2-9. S ince the actual birthday is on a Tuesday, Chuck decided to take me out for a celebratory lunch today, and we did a bit of running around. I think we're also planning a birthday get together next weekend, but I'll report on the later. We started our day at the Clay Pit in Addison. It's one of my favorite Indian restaurants, and they have...
the purest of treats (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
He never graduated high school. He laid brick and cinder blocks for a living. Sometimes he pointed out houses and other buildings he had worked on. He used to tell me, "I worked hard, very hard." He started reading seriously as a young boy. He knew a lot about history and geography. When I knew him he read mainly fiction. He liked most kinds of popular novels but especially ones that were...
The Guardian Books Blog (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
It's sobering to think about how small the world of American letters will look without him Despite having two novels coming out in the next 18 months , the memorialisation of Philip Roth has already begun. The towering American novelist has recently had his works published by the Library of America, giving him an immortal status usually reserved for dead authors. At age 76, his birthdays are now "...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
In 1985, Primo Levi was known in Britain and America for a single book, If This is a Man, his memoir of survival in Auschwitz. Then came The Periodic Table, which arrived in this country garlanded with eulogies from Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco.
MediaBistro.com (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Novelist Philip Roth curiously cut out a reference to Lansing, Michigan in his thirtieth novel, excising a location a half-hour away from this GalleyCat editor's hometown. The NY Observer painstakingly compared a review copy of " The Humbling " against the final copy sold in bookstores, uncovering this geographical slight : "[In the first draft] Pegeen's father runs a community theater...
Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Athletes and the Writing Life Can you imagine Faulkner putting down the whiskey to go for a run? Or Virginia Woolf psyching herself up for a swim meet? Probably not—no more than you can imagine three-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt coming down with sprinter’s block. There are always exceptions, like Philip Roth who they say strength trains to be in shape for the rigors of his stand-up...
Books, Inq. (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
... In ‘The Humbling,’ Philip Roth imagines an actor grappling with the waning of his gifts . (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Washington Post (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
When the aging heroes of Philip Roth's late fiction succumb to despair, they seek redemption and renewal not through work, therapy, charity, fellowship or family but through an affair with a younger woman. The woman must meet certain conditions: She must be unattainable, foreign, the wrong class ...
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
The long list for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is now available: 156 authors from 46 countries, with 41 books originally written in 17 languages other than English (a decent percentage). Among the finalists are a good number (eighteen) under review at the complete review : Anathem by Neal Stephenson The Angel Maker by Stefan Brijs Beyond Suspicion by Tanguy Viel Chicago by Alaa Al...
USA Today (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
Philip Roth remains prolific, unlike the main character in Roth's 30th. novel, a famous actor who has suddenly and inexplicably ...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
Cape, £12.99 He'd lost his magic. The impulse was spent. Perhaps not the wisest admission from someone who has spent the last decade writing the same book, but the truth nonetheless. Simon Axler, let's call him Simon Axler, had never failed in the theatre, let's call it theatre; everything he had done had been successful. But now, at the age of 65, he couldn't act. He had failed as Prospero...
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
The longlist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award will be announced today, and you should be able to find it at the official site later in the day (it's not up yet as I write this). The public announcement is only due later in the day -- but Eileen Battersby of the Irish Times apparently got a sneak preview, and was thus able to file Impac list shows worldwide vitality of fiction before...
Janet Reid, Literary Agent (Free subscription) | 11/02/2009
Sean Ferrell's cogent argument against The Death of the Novel on his blog. was inspired by Jeff Somers' response to Philip Roth's assertion the novel will be dead in 25 years.
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 11/02/2009
Roth and Allen are producing works it's difficult not to describe as clichés. What could be more commonplace than men obsessed with proving that male elders remain attractive to their female juniors?
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