Blake Baileyâs Philip Roth, a volume Roth had imagined in some form for more than 20 years, was published internationally this week, and will be released in hardback on June 16 in Australia. Ever willing to provoke or amplify an argument, the author of
American Pastoral,
Sabbathâs Theater and other novels had been thinking of a biography ever since his former wife, actor Claire Bloom, depicted him as unfaithful, cruel and irrational in her 1996 memoir
Leaving a Dollâs House.
Roth was determined to have his side come out, but wanted someone else to tell it. He first recruited Ross Miller, an English professor and nephew of playwright Arthur Miller, but became so unhappy with what he believed was Millerâs narrow scope that the two had a falling out. So in 2012, Roth brought in Bailey, granting him full access to his papers, his friends and, the highest hurdle, the author himself. Bailey would have the final say.
What happens when Philip Roth meets Blake Bailey?
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What happens when Philip Roth meets Blake Bailey?
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Blake Bailey s terrific Philip Roth biography digs up the true stories behind his novels
5/5
3 April 2021 • 3:00pm
Philip Roth: When I let the repellent in, I found that I was alive
Credit: ELLINGVAG/ORJAN/Corbis
Many of the stories in Blake Bailey’s terrific new biography of Philip Roth will seem familiar to fans – we heard them first in his novels. “Yes, I know there’s a difference between characters and authors,” Irving Howe, his one-time champion and eventual critic, wrote. “But I also know that grown-ups should not pretend that it’s quite the difference they tell their students it is.”