Books "The Patriot" The collected nonfiction of Philip Roth. by Adam Gopnik
I have a confession to make; I only have read the non fiction of the great novelist Philip Roth. I am acquainted with all his ouevre and its impact and mythology and I found this essay very interesting for citing Roth as writing comedy, not satire or humor...and that he is a sum of his contradictions. The most cited quote is so quintessentially memorable. "When I was first in Czechoslovakia, "Roth wrote in a much quoted line, " it occurred to me that I work in a society where as a writer everything goes and nothing matters, while for the Czech writers I met in Prague, nothing goes and everything matters" , which can be said of Russia and other societies through time. Even, now, America. Gopnik sees Roth as a storyteller. Roth says "The writers who expanded and shaped my sense of America were mainly small -town Midwestserners(I am one) and Southerners(I agree there! ), he writes. He includes in this group Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Erskine Caldwell, and Theodore Dreiser. I would add: Eudora Welty( Missisippi) . How could we forget the legacy of Hemingway(Chicago Wisconsin) ? Even Fitzgerald comes from the Midwest, Minnesota, doesn't he?
In Roth's 2004 novel, Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 Presidential election? With his Nazi affections, that may be prophetic of our current situation.
It is a terrific survey of Roth's work, related to a new template and I recommend it. Gopnik comes to closure: A multitudinous intensity of polarities": it seems like a passably patriotic motto to inscribe on the current American coat of arms. "
This essay was written to place Roth's new collection of nonfiction, mostly writing about writing: "Why Write?". There is also a contrast with Updike, thoughout...seeing them as rivals in an America of the 50's but taking us into the 70's and beyond...The richness of a great work of art, of literature and of an author, is that the works take on new meanings in other eras, with readers having another history.
In Roth's 2004 novel, Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 Presidential election? With his Nazi affections, that may be prophetic of our current situation.
It is a terrific survey of Roth's work, related to a new template and I recommend it. Gopnik comes to closure: A multitudinous intensity of polarities": it seems like a passably patriotic motto to inscribe on the current American coat of arms. "
This essay was written to place Roth's new collection of nonfiction, mostly writing about writing: "Why Write?". There is also a contrast with Updike, thoughout...seeing them as rivals in an America of the 50's but taking us into the 70's and beyond...The richness of a great work of art, of literature and of an author, is that the works take on new meanings in other eras, with readers having another history.
Comments
Post a Comment