Novelist Philip Roth has lashed out at President Trump as an ignorant “con man” who could do untold damage to the country. The retired “Portnoy’s Complaint” author told the New Yorker that Trump makes other polarizing Republicans like Richard Nixon and George W. Bush look angelic by comparison. “Trump is ignorant of government, of history,…
In one of his last interviews in office, President Barack Obama told The New York Times’ chief book critic, Michiko Kakutani, that he thinks Philip Roth and Saul Bellow rank among the greatest authors to explore the experience of being an outsider in the United States. “Some of the great books by Jewish authors like…
It’s struck me lately that the American writer perhaps most deeply associated with White Male Writer-ness is one who made his name writing fiction about identity. Google “Philip Roth” and “white male” and you find an endless stream of essays that offer up Roth as a prime example of the white male literary novelist. As…
Who is Philip Roth? Most of us agree on the known particulars: he’s a novelist (obviously), a Jew, a Newark native. Depending on who you ask, he is also a pervert, a misogynist, a narcissist, a chauvinist, and/or a self-hating Jew. (I got that list from quickly Googling “most frequent criticisms of Philip Roth;” I…
Philip Roth is one of Newark, New Jersey’s most famous sons. The novelist was born there, and has frequently used the city as a setting for his books. Now, he’s paying homage to Newark by pledging to donate his personal library to the Newark Public Library upon his death. In a press release, Roth explained…
Last weekend Rachel Bloom made us laugh, cry and sing with the season premier of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Ewan McGregor gave us a film adaptation of “American Pastoral” that the Forward’s Adam Langer found disappointing (sorry), and we swooned, again, for Leonard Cohen. What’s grabbing our attention this week? Holocaust denial, more Philip Roth, and the…
If there’s one moment that bugs Philip Roth more than any in “American Pastoral,” the new film adaptation of his explosive Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 novel, I’m guessing it’s this one: During an overwrought scene of domestic conflict between Newark’s one-time golden boy Swede Levov and his bilious, radical teenage daughter Merry, the camera lingers on…
Depending on where you are, it’s either fall or supposed to be. (New York has had a week of balmy temperatures, with turning leaves the only hint of autumn.) Oscar-contending films are being released, television shows are embarking on new seasons, and as evenings descend earlier, books are beckoning from the shelves. What better time…
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