false 50696 15 A middle-aged writer recalls his younger self. At 23, Nathan Zuckerman has had four stories published and a small, flattering <i>Saturday Review</i> up-and-coming-author profile (complete with a photo of him playing with his ex-girlfriend's cat), which he purports to scorn. As genuine and polite as he seems, Zuckerman has already hurt his family with his autobiographical art and ruined his relationship with adultery and honesty. Visiting his reclusive idol (famed for his "blend of sympathy and pitilessness") in the Berkshires, the writer watches himself watching himself and attempts to confront his work and life. Instead he finds himself turning reality into metafiction. A quote he happens upon from Henry James only complicates matters further: "We work in the dark--we do what we can--we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art." Events, however, have their revenge, weaving more out of control than even he can anticipate or ask for. Philip Roth is the master of the uncomfortable, and his alter ego a connoisseur of self-involvement, self-loathing, and self-examination. ("Virtuous reader, if you think that after intercourse all animals are sad, try masturbating on the daybed in E. I. Lonoff's study and see how you feel when it's over.") 3248701 1979 The Ghost Writer total:1218|5:294|4:504|3:341|2:65|1:14| 1218 4653 1601 115 4 2 false false Tue Dec 09 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 07:10:41 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 07:59:13 -0800 2008 The Human Stain when its ideological weight revealed itself.)

I don't want to get too much into the story, as ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Mar 31 09:26:42 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 09:45:00 -0700 2008 Portnoy's Complaint, a read I've yet to embark upon. This book is the first part in the "trilogy and epilogue" (three novels and a novella) collectively kno...more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 04 07:51:34 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 07:52:37 -0800 2008
Who is the "ghost writer"? Is it the young man, Nathan Zuckerman, who's own work is still so new that it hasn't it's own body? Is it the o...more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Nov 02 10:49:59 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 07 13:00:08 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 4 false false Sun Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 19:07:42 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 15:54:15 -0800 2009 The Human Stain, etc.), but outside of that, not a whole lot of Roth. And since Cormac ain't putting out for me, I thought I'd sati...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 19:49:31 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 09:12:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 15:12:24 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 22:41:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Jun 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 14:09:38 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 17:27:27 -0700 2009
All right, I admit it -- I'm not the biggest fan of postmodernism, for a whole host of re...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Apr 06 19:33:44 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 19:43:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 12:48:04 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 14:18:38 -0800 2009 He is not among my most favorite ones (his texts feel really in control even when his characters are not, and are not fluid or mischievous enough for me, if that makes any sense!) but still it is really interest...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 14:06:36 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 14:06:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 12 10:22:51 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 10:23:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 20:24:05 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 20:24:28 -0700 2009 This is a minor work: not so much a novel as a series of three linked novellas (plus a short coda). The third of the novellas -- in which the tyro novelist Nathan Zuckerman convinces himself that a young woman for whom he's developed the hots is in fact a survived Anne Frank, or perhaps just s...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 10:20:34 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 10:23:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Jun 08 08:07:51 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 10:57:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 26 14:42:16 -0700 2008 Sun Nov 02 11:39:51 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 12 17:01:26 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 20 11:23:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 26 21:53:40 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 13:01:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 12:34:51 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 12:42:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Feb 19 17:00:05 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 17:00:05 -0800 2009 more...]]>