The Elegant Variation: THE SUMMER OF ROTH

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July 23, 2008

THE SUMMER OF ROTH

(Manuscript page from Patrimony.)

A number of you have noted and commented upon the burst of attention to Philip Roth around these parts of late. It's explanation time.

It started back when Wyatt Mason, writing at his superb new blog Sentences, mused about how much of his backlist reviewers coming to Roth's new novel Indignation should know. As he told it, "With Roth, a reader familiar with only Goodbye Columbus and Portnoy’s Complaint will necessarily form a very different picture of the preoccupations, tendencies, and techniques of the author in question than will a reader intimate with The Counterlife and Operation Shylock (or, alternately, The Breast and “The Prague Orgy”—one can, with Roth, produce a baker’s dozen of such pairs)."

That got me thinking about my own reviewing habits. For my first review for the New York Times Book Review, James Wilcox's Hunk City, I read his eight prior novels. Afterwards, I found myself wondering about the use of my time and my mania for thoroughness (or my OCD, if you prefer). One the one hand, only one of the eight books is mentioned specifically in the review – Modern Baptists, to which Hunk City is a sequel. And in a review of typical length – let's say 500 to 800 words – there's no real way to deploy that kind of information (without looking like you're showing off). But it seemed to me not just worthwhile but essential to be steeped in his body of work – to understand his overarching aesthetic project, and to be clear on how seamlessly (or not) the new book fit into his oeuvre.

Consider, if you will, my very brief review of Peter Carey's His Illegal Self for the Dallas Morning News. In this case, I already knew all his novels, and that saved me when I found I didn't care for the new one – I could compare it to its predecessors, and at least sing their praises.

Around the same time of the Mason post, I was offered the opportunity to review Indignation for the Barnes & Noble Review, an outlet I especially enjoy reviewing for because I'm given a bit more space to work with. I'd been looking for a "summer reading project" to take me away from the usual obligatory pile of current releases, and, inspired by Mason, I decided to use the excuse of this assignment to make this The Summer of Roth.

My original plan was to read all of Roth; then I limited it to all the Roth I hadn't read yet. But I don't know that the deadline will permit such thoroughness. I am, however, working my way through as much Roth as I can get in this summer, focusing on the books I have not read – many of the early ones, especially: Letting Go, The Great American Novel, Our Gang, Letting Go – while revisiting a few of what I consider the indispensible titles: Sabbath's Theater, The Ghost Writer, American Pastoral and Portnoy's Complaint, for example.

So what's it all in aid of? My plan – though I have been known to scotch ambitious plans before, so the usual caveats apply – is to pull back the curtain on my thinking and methods as I prepare for this review. The majority of readers see only finished reviews but I want to show you what goes into a sausage – the things I notice, the patterns I detect, the strengths and weaknesses. And then, as I turn to Indignation and prepare my review, I will give you some specific glimpses into that process – the preparation, the contemplation and the composition. With any luck, the journey will be mildly illuminating and not completely banal, and there will be a decent review to show for it at the end of the tunnel. And we'll see how much or how little of this makes it into the final review.

And, to get us started, I will be giving away a pile of Roth this Friday, so make sure you come back.

Posted at 12:35 AM in Critics & Criticism, The Summer of Roth | Permalink

Comments

Mark, you're turning from a book reviewer into a literary critic! Also taking advantage of the space this medium affords. Good moves!

Posted by: Nigel Beale | July 23, 2008 at 04:46 AM

This may be tangential, but as a Roth fan I thought I'd mention the beautiful close reading of Sabbath's Theatre's opening by James Wood in his new book How Fiction Works. It sent me right back into the gloomy/enthralling haze of Roth's novel.

Posted by: Ryan Chapman | July 23, 2008 at 06:41 AM

Bravo for your thoroughness, Mark. It's the way reviewing should be done (though only the most passionate will demand so much of themselves!). I look forward to seeing the sausage process, especially since the subject is Roth. Most of his books send me into transports of admiration and delight, but sometimes too I just want to groan aloud with exasperation.

Posted by: Pamela | July 23, 2008 at 06:55 AM

Who can forget Brenda's pink breasts floating towards Neil in the pool? Or the basketballs and baseballs dropped beneath the Patimkin's tree like some strange fruit?

Posted by: jh | July 23, 2008 at 08:13 AM

I have just finished The Counterlife and have come away feeling, as I usually do, that each Roth I read is in some way better than the last.

Also: TEV shout out in the new Wood!

Posted by: AJG | July 23, 2008 at 11:38 AM

The med school surgery rotation motto: 'See one. Do one. Teach one.'

Looking forward to it, Mark.

Best,
Jim H.

Posted by: Jim H. | July 23, 2008 at 11:40 AM

The question of how much background research is required for a non-fiction review is also interesting. In that context, the issue is not whether the reviewer has the time and will to work through an author’s ouvre, but whether the reviewer can quickly bring himself up to speed in a given field to the point where he can make confident judgments about the book under review. Some (like the editors of the Chicago Tribune’s book pages) apparently take the view that only an expert should be assigned to review a work of non-fiction: a historian for a book of history, a lawyer for a law book, etc. I tend to disagree, and not only because I want to keep working as a generalist non-fiction critic. A Joyce scholar certainly has a unique perspective to assess a new Joyce biography, but on the other hand, one of the benefits of popular as opposed to academic criticism is exposing niche work to a broader audience—of critics as well as readers. Some subjects (the sciences) are just too far beyond my ken, but others (the humanities) strike me as approachable for a generalist critic who’s willing to tackle a few background books on the subject. And doing so can be a great education.

Posted by: Michael O'D | July 23, 2008 at 02:14 PM

I'm on a Roth kick myself these days. I had read Goodbye Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint years ago, and never really went back to him. I just read The Counterlife, which I enjoyed quite a bit, and I'm now about halfway through The Ghost Writer. Sabbath's Theater and American Pastoral will follow.

Posted by: JMW | July 24, 2008 at 01:23 PM

...but why? You're not, I hope, reviewing his career, but a single novel, Indignation. A good novel can be enjoyed apart from its author's other efforts, and a good review advises readers on whether it's worth their time. A perspicacious critic could, given an anonymous manuscript, say whether it was good or bad, and you don't have to have read anything else by Tolstoy to appreciate, say, the Death of Ivan Illych.

As BR Myers says, there's a feeling now that the writer is more important than the work he produces...

Posted by: The Human Blog | July 25, 2008 at 08:50 AM

The Human Blog raises a valuable point. Certainly a review - or piece of criticism - you write having washed yourself in the writer's previous work must be more informed and richer than one you write with limited background knowledge. But the question then arises: who are you writing for? In the Barnes & Noble Review, it's likely that most people reading the review will have read little Roth, maybe only a few of the most famous titles, and they'll have heard of Indignation as the latest from a big name and want to know more about it. Will your deep reading assist that or, more accurately, be a truer reflection of what they would make of the book (which on some level is what they want to find out)? Probably not.

But anyway, a wide reading of Roth is a good thing in itself. For my own part, I know only the Zuckerman Bound books, a couple of Kepeshes and some of his most recent work. I am having a Couple of Years of Roth, unable to match you for Summer intensity. But looking forward to it.

Posted by: John Self | September 05, 2008 at 08:14 AM

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

July 23, 2008

THE SUMMER OF ROTH

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

July 23, 2008

THE SUMMER OF ROTH

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism