2. There's a weird ouroboros quality to accounts of Roth's last years because they were spent trying to control -- to shape or to resist -- the biographies we're reading. Plus a novel (Exit Ghost) about his alter-ego's fear of a biographer. Snakes eating their tails.
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3. Roth wanted a biographer who would refute the account given to him by his ex-wife Claire Bloom. In the process he used one biographer as a sock puppet & broke with him (Ross Miller), stonewalled another (Ira Nadel) & finally settled on Blake Bailey (now accused of rape).
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4. The Roth estate is continuing the folly: they are planning on destroying Roth manuscripts & papers (including 2 book length memoirs about Bloom & Ross) which only Bailey and a few others have seen.
@alex_shephard reports on the details here:https://newrepublic.com/article/162475/philip-roth-blake-bailey-documents-biography …Show this thread -
5. If the Roth estates goes ahead & destroys these manuscripts, they will tie Roth's name to Bailey forever (since he'll be the only source, albeit a refracted one, for Roth's views on these matters). That seems incredibly unwise.
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6. The paradox here is that the unauthorized biography Roth stonewalled by not allowing quotes (Ira Nadel) is actually much better for Roth's reputation than Bailey's book. Nadel wrote a literary biography about a writer, Bailey a re-litigation of private feuds.
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7. My friend
@ejessicajohnson did a podcast about the Roth scandal but also much more: about the need people have to control the narrative of their lives (and their relationships) & how that leads to disaster. It's a great discussion. Listen here:https://jeetheer.substack.com/p/podcast-philip-roth-control-freak …Show this thread
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He wrote about jerking off into a liver on a public bus and later served that liver to his family - and it was a best seller and taught in Lit classes. Dude is a king.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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his books lost a lot of the comedy of his earlier works during this time
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Yes, exactly.
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His last 25 years include some of his best books: the history trilogy (American Pastoral/I Married a Communist/Human Stain), Plot Against America, and Sabbath's Theater, which IIRC you said was your favorite. (I've always found having a creative renaissance in his 60s uplifting!)
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I loved "American Pastoral" but it has weird blind spots, predictably with regard to Black characters. "Human Stain" is even worse in that regard. I enjoyed "I Married A Communist" but hardly captured the era. Why did male critics all ignore the early kiss in "American Pastoral"?
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