Status Updates From Zukerman encadenado

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Fantastic.

The Prague Orgy begins! And it’s a wickedly funny novella.

My deep-dive into Philip Roth and his altar ego Nathan Zuckerman continues. Three novels done and one to go. Thoroughly enjoying his crackling sentences.

“But once one’s writing, it’s all limits. Bound to a subject. Bound to make sense of it. Bound to make a book of it. If you want to be reminded of your limitations virtually every minute, there’s no better occupation to choose. Your memory, your diction, your intelligence, your sympathies, your observations, your sensations, your understanding — never enough.”

“But what became colossal was the next page. He thought he had chosen life but what he had chosen was the next page. Stealing time to write stories, he never thought to wonder what time might be stealing from him. Only gradually did the perfecting of a writer’s iron will begin to feel like the evasion of experience, and the means to imaginative release… like the sternest form of incarceration.

“… And then he puts it in and I know just what to do to make him come. And then he mumbles something about tits and love and he comes. Then I put on the light and roll on my side and light up a cigarette and get on with my book. I’m reading the one you told me about. Jean Rhys.”

"I will not make atonement on the Op Ed page for the books he's accused me of writing! I cracked a few jokes about playing stinky-pinky in Newark and you'd think I'd blown up the Knesset. Don't start confusing me with your Wasp clarity- 'there is no problem.' There is! This is not my maiden appearance in the pages of Foreskin as their Self-Hating jew of the Month."

Hilarious!

Now, The Anatomy Lesson. Zuckerman is in agony. Like Prometheus, but mainly in the neck.

Enjoying Zuckerman Unbound.

Holy shit! Zuckerman Unbound is so funny! The first chapter deal with the great Quiz Show scandal and how the Jewish contestant was screwed over by the producers.

The Ghost Writer is a fabulous novella, just the thing to get me going on the rest of this epic. Zuckerman Unbound is next.

The Anatomy Lesson, 5.

Zuckerman Unbound, 4.75

The Ghost Writer: 4.75

Zuckerman Unbound was incredible. Roth was incredible.

Επίλογος: Το όργιο της Πράγας. 3*

Just completed the first part of Zuckerman Unbound. Amazing! If Alvin Pepler were a real person, he'd be Richard Kind.

Σουρεάλ Μάθημα ανατομίας 4*

Just finished the first novel in this collection - The Ghost Writer. Roth is nothing short of brilliant. The layers in this story, nathan, then Amy (Anne). The conflict with family, representing your “people”. The challenge of committing yourself to your art. So much to unpack in such a short novel.

«Και ποιος είσαι του λόγου σου;» είπε.
« Κανένας», απάντησε ο Ζούκερμαν, Και το θέμα τελείωσε εκεί. Δεν είσαι κανενός γιος, πια,δεν είσαι καμιάς καλής γυναικούλας ο άντρας, δεν είσαι κανενός αδερφού ο αδερφός, και ούτε και έρχεσαι από πουθενά, πλέον.
Ζούκερμαν λυόμενος 5*

Ο συγγραφέας φάντασμα 4*

Το wtf σημείο της ιστορίας .....

Το wtf σημείο της ιστορίας .....

I find Zuckerman totally unbearable at this point. After his second or third pornographic rant, it's becoming hard to convince myself to pick up the book.

I read the Ghost Writer in 2011, but the only thing I remembered was liking it. I'd forgotten the Anne Frank stuff completely. I didn't like it as much this time.

But Zuckerman Unbound is much better. A really fine novel.

L'Orgia di Praga, 1985

“In questa nazione di narratori avevo appena cominciato ad ascoltare tutte le loro storie; avevo appena cominciato a capire che io stesso stavo spogliandomi della mia, uscendo il più silenziosamente possibile dalla storia che mi tiene prigioniero”.

"Più energia consuma, più ne mette insieme. Sono ipnotici, questi pazzi che non riescono a finirla di parlare. Vanno fino in fondo, e non solo sulla carta. Dicono tutto. La sua umanità. La sua depravazione. I suoi ideali. Che quest'uomo sia un ciarlatano? Si chiedeva Zuckerman. Si direbbe che non si conosca, non sa se comportarsi in modo da sembrare peggio e meglio di quello che è”.

“Diatriba, alibi, aneddoto, confessione, rimostranza, promozione, pedagogia, filosofia, attacco, autodifesa, denuncia, spumeggiante confluenza di passione e linguaggio, e tutto per una platea dove sedeva una sola persona. Nel suo arido deserto, quell'oasi di parole!"

“Invece il dolore non è interessante e non ha senso: è semplice e stupido dolore, è il contrario di interessante, e non c'era nulla, proprio nulla che gli attribuisse alcun valore, sempre che tu non fossi matto”.