PHILIP ROTH

A Canadian literary critic chronicles the life of one of America’s most revered and controversial authors.

This book is one of two new biographies of Roth to arrive this spring; the other is Blake Bailey’s authorized portrait, Philip Roth. Nadel, who has penned biographies of Leonard Cohen, Tom Stoppard, and others, seeks to paint a portrait that “runs counter to the personae Roth offered to readers and interviewers” and reveals his “inner doubts” and “difficult relationships.” Using Roth’s archives, past interviews, and readings, Nadel comprehensively narrates Roth’s Jewish upbringing in Newark, his prodigious, award-winning literary output, and his many relationships with women, most notably his tumultuous marriage to Claire Bloom. However, some of Nadel’s analysis relies on speculation: Roth “may have chosen younger women precisely because he knew they would depart”; 1950s burlesque and vaudeville houses “may have influenced” certain venues in his fiction; The Counterlife is in five parts, “possibly alluding to the five books of Moses.” Regarding Roth’s alleged misogyny and harsh depictions of women in his fiction, Nadel notes that he treated women warmly and had many female admirers. However, the defenses offered are thin—e.g., that “he kept an extensive photo album of his girlfriends” and contributed significantly to their finances—though the author does acknowledge “Roth’s erratic behavior” and his affairs with women who were decades younger, including some of his writing students. Nadel is at his best when he focuses on the creation and marketing of Roth’s books, especially his behind-the-scenes details of the publication of Goodbye, Columbus; an incisive reading of the “underappreciated” Great American Novel, “a work of intense, fascinating humor drawing from his deep-seated love of baseball”; and an analysis of Roth’s penchant for controlling all aspects of his work, from jacket design and promotion to “the order of the advertising copy and arrangement of typefaces” in the ads for Portnoy.

An admiring and well-researched yet selective account of a great writer’s career.