Roth explores the American political turmoil of the Vietnam war years, with Zuckerman reimagining the life of Swede, a promising young man who thought he'd achieved the American dream – until his life began to unravel around him.Īnother Zuckerman novel: here Roth's alter-ego observes as his neighbour Coleman Silk, a professor and dean at a nearby college, is accused of racism by two students and forced to resign his job after the subsequent uproar. The panel selected The Ghost Writer for the Pulitzer prize, but were overruled in favour of Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song.Īt a high school reunion, Zuckerman is told the sad story of Seymour "Swede" Levov, the older brother of a former classmate. Roth’s alter ego Nathan Zuckerman moves centre stage for the first time as he decides that the young woman he meets at the house of an eminent Jewish writer, EI Lonoff, is in fact Anne Frank. Fizzing with energy, sexual tension, and a whole lot of “whacking off”, it was an immediate scandal, an instant bestseller and made Roth a household name. “Enough being a nice Jewish boy,” declares Alexander Portnoy, as he confesses the guilt-ridden mess of his life to his psychoanalyst.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |