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From the moment that his debut book, Goodbye, Columbus (1959), won him the National Book Award, Philip Roth has been among the most influential and controversial writers of our age. Now the author of more than twenty novels, numerous stories, two memoirs, and two books of literary criticism, Roth has used his writing to continually reinvent himself and in doing so to remake the American literary landscape. This Companion provides the most comprehensive introduction to his works and thought in a collection of newly commissioned essays from distinguished scholars. Beginning with the urgency of Roth's early fiction and extending to the vitality of his most recent novels, these essays trace Roth's artistic engagement with questions about ethnic identity, postmodernism, Israel, the Holocaust, sexuality, and the human psyche itself. With its chronology and guide to further reading, this Companion will be essential for new and returning Roth readers, students and scholars. ... Read more

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Has anyone ever worked harder and longer at being immature than Philip Roth? The novelist himself pointed out the paradox, saying that after establishing a reputation for maturity with two earnest novels, he "worked hard and long and diligently" to be frivolous--an effort that resulted in the notoriously immature Portnoy's Complaint (1969). Three-and-a-half decades and more than twenty books later, Roth is still at his serious "pursuit of the unserious." But his art of immaturity has itself matured, developing surprising links with two traditions of immaturity--an American one that includes Emerson, Melville, and Henry James, and a late twentieth-century Eastern European one that developed in reaction to totalitarianism. In Philip Roth's Rude Truth--one of the first major studies of Roth's career as a whole--Ross Posnock examines Roth's "mature immaturity" in all its depth and richness. Philip Roth's Rude Truth will force readers to reconsider the narrow categories into which Roth has often been slotted--laureate of Newark, New Jersey; junior partner in the firm Salinger, Bellow, Mailer, and Malamud; Jewish-American regionalist. In dramatic contrast to these caricatures, the Roth who emerges from Posnock's readable and intellectually vibrant study is a great cosmopolitan in the tradition of Henry James and Milan Kundera. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

LITERARY CRITICISM
THE BOOK TAKES ONE DEEPER FROM THE EYES OF A KNOWLEDGEABLE MAN OF LETTERS. I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT PHILLIP ROTH, ESPECIALLY HIS LIFE-LONG EFFORT IN THE PORTRAYAL OF FLAWED HUMAN BEINGS, WHICH WE ALL ARE. I BUY ALL OF ROTH'S BOOKS- ENTERTAINING AND DEEP.

BECAUSE OF THE TRUTH OF THE FAILED INDIVIDUAL, ESPECIALLY AFTER 1963 WHEN MY OWN WRITING SHOWS THE END OF JUDEOCHRISTIANITY, GOD IS BACK TO WORKING WITH THE US- GROUPS, COMMUNITIES, NATIONS AND INTENATIONAL. ROTH HAS MADE THIS SHIFT CLEARER TO UNDERSTAND.The New Pentateuch: Creating "Our Nation Is God"

Terrific read on Roth and his Emersonian insouciance
This is the only study on Roth that centers on what Roth readers have found most entertaining in his work: his rudeness at the alter of bourgeois pieties. More striking, though, is Posnock's linking of Roth's rudeness to Emerson, a connection that is itself an instance of the audacity it is intended to clarify.

The Best and Best Written Criticism of Roth
As a committed devotee of Roth's work, I've read a number of articles and critiques of his literature and its meaning, but none compare to the expansiveness, clarity, and insight that one can derive from Posnock's book. While most works on Roth tend to focus on categorizing him narrowly as a Jewish American author, Posnock's work sees him in a novel light - Roth is part of a tradition of authors on both sides of the Atlantic who write about the importance of immaturity, silliness, and flouting convention. It is this lens, perhaps even more than a particular Jewish/ethnic lens that, in my opinion, offers the most insight into Portnoy's Complaint, The Counterlife, The Human Stain, and his other great works. By taking into account his literary genealogy, one also learns a lot about Henry James, Raplh Waldo Emerson, and Milan Kundera.

Besides being impeccably researched and carefully (and not exaggeratedly) argued, Posnock has a talent for excellent, even beautiful, writing. This is the kind of style and caliber of writing that I would enjoy even if I had no interest in Roth or his canon. The work as a whole is outstanding and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Roth's work or in a model of sterling scholarship and writing.

Every day a new day to dawn. This Roth is but a morning star
Ross Posnock makes a new reading of the work of Philip Roth. He focuses on the idea of 'immaturity' and through it links Roth to literary traditions and writers to whom he is not normally connected. Perhaps most notably he connects Roth with the writers of the American Renaissance (1850-55) Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Melville, Hawthorne the giants of the American Tradition. Posnock shows how Roth's refusal to accept the inhibiting restrictions of maturity free him to make an incredible imaginative effort, one which remarkably unlike that of so many American writers, does in fact have a 'second act' Posnock also links Roth with the world of Eastern European writers most notablyMilan Kundera. Posnock finds Roth to be that rare American writer who has gone from strength to greater strength. For him the first rank of Roth's work consists in "Portnoy's Complaint" (1969) "The Counterlife" (1986) "Sabbath's Theatre " (1995) and "The Human Stain" ( 2000) I myself have a different sense of the Roth canon and believe that his most recent work "Everyman" is at a level only "Portnoy" can match.
Posnock does what a good literary critic should do - expands our sense of the richness of meaning of the work.
This is a welcome addition to the growing critical literature on the work of an American master. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not quite three stars ( from a MAJOR Philip Roth fan)
I have read eight other books by Roth, and would give them all four or five stars each. I kept each one, because I always keep books I loved.

"ZB" is the only Roth book I gave away after finishing. I just did not care for this trilogy and epilogue. If you have never read anything by Roth, do not start here -- you will get the wrong impression of this author. Read "Portnoy's Complaint," and "Goodbye Columbus" if you've never read anything by Roth. If you've already read "PC" and "GC," then I can also wholeheartedly recommend "The Professor of Desire," "Operation Shylock," "The Facts" (non-fiction), "When She Was Good," "The Counterlife," and "Deception."

Terrific
When I was a teenager (around 1970 or so), I read a couple of P Roth novels (Portnoy's Complaint and Goodbye Columbus, I think).They didn't make a huge impression (unlike, e.g., Tolkein's Lord of the Rings), exceptthat I remember them as enjoyable.Roth was then off my radar for almost30 years.

At some point, I bought his "trilogy & epilogue"from a remainder table ($2.98, according to the sticker still affixed), andeventually got to it.Here's all you need to kmow about my recommendation: halfway through this book, I was trolling through Amazon, trying to decidewhich Roth book to pick up next.Why I dropped him in 1970, I don't know-- it must have been the ... oh, never mind.

I found "ZuckermanUnbound" and "The Anatomy Lesson" to be the strongest of the4 components (any can be read alone, but they're best read in sequence).Ifound "Prague Orgy" to be a little bizarre, and never saw how itfit in.I guess that's the only reason for the 4 rather than 5 stars. ... Read more

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The interviews, essays, and articles collected here span a quarter century of Philip Roth's distinguished career and "reveal [a] preoccupation with the relationship between the written and the unwritten world." Here is Roth on himself and his work and the controversies it's engendered. Here too are Roth's writings on the Eastern European writers he has always championed; and on baseball, American fiction, and American Jews. The essential collection of nonfiction by a true American master, Reading Myself and Others features his long interview with the Paris Review. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

He will make you laugh and he may make you cry
Interviews, articles , essays. An essay on Kafka which turns into a moving fiction on what would have happened to Kafka had he come as a war refugee to Roth's New Jersey. Writing about the East-European authors he has championed, about the claim of the Jewish community that his writing has not served it very well, about the novel, and the American reality which in its extravagance seems to produce more than any fiction can do, an essay on The Newark Public Library one on Cambodia, on 'TheBaseball Years' on his protege Alan Lelchuk, reflections on his own books, Portnoy, the Breast, the Great American novel, Life as a Man.
A rich collection by the funniest and certainly one of the best American writers of the last half- century.

Please, Mr. Roth, Update This Collection
Not only is Philip Roth perhaps America's greatest living novelist, he is one of the nation's very best literary critics as well.This book is a compilation of essays and interviews he published before 1974.Included ishis piercing analyses of the accusations of anti-Semitism made against himas well as "Writing American Fiction", the classic essay where hedeclares that the novelist's imagination can't possibly keep up with theextravagance of American reality.Also included is the short story/essay"Looking at Kafka" which may be the best thing ever written aboutthat quintessential modernist author.Roth has written enough criticism inthe years since this book was published to assemble a whole new volume:please, we badly need an update! ... Read more

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Explores the comic devices Roth uses to satirize his times, the Jewish community, and himself. ... Read more

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Gil Gamesh, the only pitcher who ever literally tried to kill the umpire. The ex-con first baseman John Baal, “The Babe Ruth of the Big House,” who never hit a homerun sober. If you’ve never heard of them — or of the Ruppert Mundy’s, the only homeless big-league ball team in American history — it’s because of the Communist plot and the capitalist scandal that expunged the entire Patriot League from baseball memory.

In this ribald, richly imagined, and wickedly satiric novel, Philip Roth turns baseball’s status as national pastime and myth into the occasion for unfettered picaresque farce, replete with heroism, perfidy, ebullient wordplay, and a cast of characters that includes the House Un-American Activities Committee.

"Roth is better than he's ever been before....The prose is electric." - The Atlantic ... Read more

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Of all contemporary American writers, Philip Roth is perhaps the most ambitious, yet he is one of the most underrepresented in terms of critical attention given his place in American letters. Unlike many aging novelists, whose production and creative mastery wane over time, Roth has demonstrated a unique ability not only to sustain his literary output, but also to surpass the scope and talent inherent in his previous writings. He has been awarded many literary honors, and in the 1990s alone he won every major American book award. This long-overdue collection of essays covers Roth's entire output and links themes across works, highlighting those thoughts and ideas that recur frequently.

Unlike older introductions to Roth's writings, this volume will provide up-to-date coverage of all his works. Each chapter introduces the work or works under discussion, provides a brief summary of the story, and moves on to a lively analysis of its various literary elements and its significance in Roth's overall body of work. While each chapter focuses on the central issues in the specific work, several larger themes that run throughout many of his writings will be addressed, including the rise of suburbanization in post-war America, the problems and prominence of the family, American (Jewish) ethnicity, comedy and satire, the costs of literary celebrity, the promises and failures of the American dream, and others. Newcomers to and fans alike will find everything they need in this volume to build a better appreciation of Roth's work.

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This title is a collection of original essays on Philip Roth offering contemporary critical readings and assessments of recent texts. Philip Roth has without doubt been one of the most important writers of fiction in the United States during the latter part of the twentieth century. Philip Roth collects new essays by noted Roth scholars on three essential novels appearing in recent years, "American Pastoral" (1997), "The Human Stain" (2000), and "The Plot Against America' (2004). The volume illuminates Roth's multilayered perceptions of twentieth-century America as a place, a culture, and an idea that shapes its inhabitants in profound ways. Focusing on such topics as ethnicity, gender, race, the family, trauma, history, and narrative form, the essays collected here offer fresh readings of Roth's penetrating explorations of American selfhood. The contributors probe this American Jewish writer's insights into the paradoxes of freedom and self-determination, the politics of identity, especially as defined by racial or ethnic affiliation, and the possibilities available for self-definition and transformation within the context of American history and culture.This series offers up-to-date guides to the recent work of major contemporary North American authors. Written by leading scholars in the field, each book presents a range of original interpretations of three key texts published since 1990, showing how the same novel may be interpreted in a number of different ways. These informative, accessible volumes will appeal to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, facilitating discussion and supporting close analysis of the most important contemporary American and Canadian fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Ostentatious whining
Ostentatious whining, with an accent, about self initiated contemptible behavior of a free, well educated, unencumbered adult who can't whip his way out of wet paper conscience. Go figya.

3 Cheers for the Pansy of Palestine!
I have loved this novel for many years and recommend it to any one who has a little "whacked" sense of humor. If you are faint of heart about sexual manners or about issues of religion proceed with caution (although this book might be just what you need). In my high school English class this would be required reading (if I could get away with it)!

His signature book. An American Jewish comic masterpiece
This is one of the funniest books ever written. Roth has written twenty- seven books to this date, and this remains his best.
It is his signature work.
There are parts in it which are in my feeling, repulsive, and even extraneous.
On the whole the linguistic brilliance is incredible.
Another point is that the work while being a comic masterpiece is at times incredibly beautiful,and to use a Roth-mocked word, 'poignant'.
One of the great reads of all time. ... Read more

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In a style richly accessible to the general reader, this book presents Roth's secular Jewishness, with its own mysteries and humor, as most representative of the American Jewish experience. Thirty years into his career as a writer, Philip Roth remains known to most readers as a self-hating Jew or a flawed would-be comic. Philip Roth and the Jews shows Roth the ironist, the master of absurdity, for whom twentieth-century America and modern Jewish history resonate with each other's signal accomplishments and anxieties. Roth's "egoism" is a persona, an abashed moralist discomfited by the world. Cooper shows that in the "Jewish" works Roth has taken the pulse of America and read the pressures of the world. Modernism, the universal tug for individual sovereignty and against tribal definition, is an issue everywhere. Roth's own odyssey of betrayal, loss, and return-the pattern of the Jewish writer in the last 200 years-is so shaped by his origins that Roth has carried his home and neighborhood into the corners of the earth and thus never left them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Phil Roth and his relationship with the Jews
I have to say that I was skeptical of this book. I was doing research on Phil Roth for my students. I found the book to be an interesting tool in understanding and clarifying Roth as an author. He was born at Newark's Beth Israel Medical Center and raised in the Jewish enclave of Newark also known as Weequahic section. Every culture or ethnic group had their sections in Newark just like they did in New York City. His relationship with Judaism is not an easy one. He is not a religious Jew nor a practicing one. I don't know if he believes in God at all and I don't expect them too. We, writers and authors are quite a strange bunch. Anyway, Roth's Jewishness is examined but it's not quite clear to the reader. I believe that Roth like others thought that his neighborhood would have stayed the same since he left but it didn't. The Jewish community has become quite assimilated into American culture. Driving past the Weequahic section last week on a snowy day only by accident, I saw his Newark as once a section where it was a community. That's the problem, we have all lost our sense of community by moving away for a little more property and nicer homes and better schools. We now have longer commutes and expenses but we miss our families and friend and the familiarity of our neighborhoods. Maybe that's why some towns have generations of families like mine in the same community, at least, we know of each other. Anyway, Roth's relationship with his religion, culture, and ethnicity is often the subject of his many novels especially about the conflict regarding assimilating or becoming mainstream once they were seen as outsiders before. Remember in their time, it seemed that there were only two religious groups, Christians and Jews. Now you have Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, etc. among our mix. Life certainly has changed for the Jews who were once seen as unwelcome outsiders but tolerable. Now they are a part of American culture, they are no longer outsiders and are welcome into our families, communities, and society.
... Read more

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This title, Philip Roth, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Philip Roth through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Philip Roth, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

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Let Bookclub-in-a-Box take you on a guided tour of this exceptional novel. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's favourite narrator, is at it again.He is a minor player in the novel & is "hired" by the main character for the purpose of telling the story of Coleman Silk, a university professor.Coleman makes 3 mistakes:the first is a politically incorrect statement about a student; the second is an affair with a woman, half his age, and the third is to have alienated his colleagues during his rise to the head of the Classics Department.

This BIAB companion to The Human Stain guarantees to raise the bar on your group’s discussion or your individual appreciation of this Roth masterpiece. Spark thoughts and meaningful conversation when you gain new insight into the complex layers of this riveting story. This BIAB guide helps you:

- Comprehend the extent of Roth’s genius as a writer- Navigate the intricacies of Roth’s discussion of the human condition- Dissect human qualities that stain our existence.- Uncover what Roth says about secrets, identities, marks and masks.- Discover how Roth’s skill with words recreates the power of Greek drama.If you are a fan of Philip Roth, you will be thrilled with this discussion; if you are not a fan yet, you will be with the help of Bookclub-in-a-Box.

Every BIAB discussion guide includes complete coverage of themes, symbols, writing style, as well as interesting and little known background information on the novel and the author.This BIAB discussion guide for The Human Stain is no exception! Let BIAB illustrate fascinating perspectives designed to help you formulate or confirm your own. ... Read more