Philip Roth

The figure of the writer has found few incarnations as emblematic as in Philip Roth. After spending years poring over his personnel file, Blake Bailey conducted interviews with friends, lovers, and colleagues, and had amazingly candid conversations with Roth himself. This biography traces the author's life, from his childhood in a lower-middle-class Jewish environment, to the height of his fame. It analyzes the weight that his disastrous first marriage had on his career, his work for the benefit of dissident colleagues on the other side of the Iron Curtain, his rivalry with friends such as John Updike or William Styron and his tumultuous love life, especially his relationship with Claire. Bloom. An honest and thoroughly documented text that traces the journey of a master of the novel as loved as it is questioned, but essential for contemporary literature.