Philip Roth






Philip Roth

author profile


born
March 19, 1933

gender
male

place of birth
Newark, New Jersey, The United States

genre
Literature & Fiction


about this author

Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained early literary fame with the 1959 collection Goodbye, Columbus (winner of 1960's National Book Award), cemented it with his 1969 bestseller Portnoy's Complaint, and has continued to write critically-acclaimed works, many of which feature his fictional alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman. The Zuckerman novels began with The Ghost Writer in 1979, and include the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997).




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avg rating: 3.69 | 40,080 ratings | 4,604 reviews | 62 distinct works | 119 fans
The Plot Against America The Plot Against America
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.61 — 5,829 ratings — published 2004
28 editions
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American Pastoral American Pastoral
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.88 — 4,977 ratings — published 1997
19 editions
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Portnoy's Complaint Portnoy's Complaint
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.66 — 4,704 ratings — published 1969
32 editions
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The Human Stain The Human Stain
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.71 — 4,009 ratings — published 2000
26 editions
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Everyman Everyman
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.47 — 2,102 ratings — published 2005
24 editions
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Goodbye, Columbus and Five Sho... Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.91 — 1,723 ratings — published 1959
37 editions
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The Ghost Writer The Ghost Writer
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.83 — 1,020 ratings — published 1979
15 editions
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Indignation Indignation
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.50 — 1,041 ratings — published 2008
12 editions
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Exit Ghost Exit Ghost
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.47 — 887 ratings — published 2007
18 editions
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Sabbath's Theater Sabbath's Theater
by Philip Roth
avg rating 3.69 — 832 ratings — published 1995
18 editions
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"You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance, as untanklike as you can be, sans cannon and machine guns and steel plating half a foot thick; you come at them unmenacingly on your own ten toes instead of tearing up the turf with your caterpillar treads, take them on with an open mind, as equals, man to man, as we used to say, and yet you never fail to get them wrong. You might as well have the brain of a tank. You get them wrong before you meet them, while you're anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you're with them; and then you go home to tell somebody else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again. Since the same generally goes for them with you, the whole thing is really a dazzling illusion. ... The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you. "
Philip Roth
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"The only obsession everyone wants: 'love.' People think that in falling in love they make themselves whole? The Platonic union of souls? I think otherwise. I think you're whole before you begin. And the love fractures you. You're whole, and then you're cracked open. "
Philip Roth (The Dying Animal)
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"He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense."
Philip Roth (American Pastoral)
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polls

Do you want to read Portnoy's Complaintby Philip Roth,
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, Midwives by Chris Bohjalian or The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell for book club?

Portnoy's Complaint
 
  3 votes, 60.0%

Little Brother
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Midwives
 
  1 vote, 20.0%

The Sparrow
 
  1 vote, 20.0%

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