"That's one of the biggest things that America gave to the Jews – gave them their anger," says Murray Ringold in Philip Roth's 1998 novel I Married a Communist.
The Roth Biography Scandal
Philip Roth: The Biography the key issue being,
Was Roth a misogynist? when both book and biographer spilled over from the review pages to Page One. “Sexual Assault Allegations Against Biographer Halt Shipping of his Book,” the
New York Times announced in April. Several women accused Bailey of predatory behavior. At a Louisiana private school where he had once taught English, he was said to have “groomed” eighth-graders for later of-age seductions to rape. And a woman said that Bailey had raped her at the home of a mutual friend who in one of the scandal’s myriad ironies was a book reviewer for the
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Just as I was sitting down to write my review of Blake Bailey’s authorised biography of Philip Roth, the news broke that Bailey had been accused of two sexual assaults and several other instances of improper behaviour dating back to the 1990s. He was promptly dropped by his literary agent. His American publisher, W.W. Norton, announced it was suspending distribution and promotion of the book, then cancelled it.
Philip Roth was well aware of his flaws and the vampiric nature of his art.
Credit:Nancy Crampton
Under the circumstances, a straight review would seem to be inappropriate and quite possibly redundant. Whatever the objective merits and shortcomings of the biography itself, it is now destined to be interpreted in light of the serious allegations against Bailey. His position is hardly enhanced by the fact that his thorough account of Roth’s life confirms that the celebrated novelist was something of a lothario.
Philip Roth
As a rule, I read few biographies, and certainly not of authors, people whose most significant life events are spent alone. In my case, Churchill, Swift, and Dostoyevsky are the exceptions that prove the rule; world-historical figures who can t be understood outside the context of their times.
So I d already decided not to bother with Blake Bailey s ballyhooed new book,
Philip Roth: The Biography even though Roth was a friendly acquaintance who d given me help and encouragement way back when. After all, his novels were semi-autobiographical; his memoirs a veritable hall of mirrors.
I agreed entirely with what Bill Clinton said in awarding Roth the National Medal of Arts: What James Joyce did for Dublin, what William Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County, Philip Roth has done for Newark. (Actually, historian Eric Alterman wrote the lines.) Roth rendered the city s dense particularity universal through the stories he told.
Science Fiction & Fantasy
by Arley Sorg
Before Kelly Robson was a celebrated science fiction writer, she competed in rodeos, and was even a rodeo princess. “I like to say that being a rodeo princess is like having all the glamour and none of the responsibility. Also to be clear, this isn’t a beauty contest it’s a riding contest.” Robson was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in Hinton, Alberta, just east of the Canadian Rockies.
Even as a kid Robson had the writing bug: She wrote a horse book called
Born Wild in fifth grade, and in sixth grade she wrote a one-act play based on C. S. Lewis’