Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books

by Claudia Roth Pierpont

A critical evaluation of Philip Roth—the first of its kind—that takes on the man, the myth, and the work

Philip Roth is one of the most renowned writers of our time. From his debut, Goodbye, Columbus, which won the National Book Award in 1960, and the explosion of Portnoy’s Complaint in 1969 to his haunting reimagining of Anne Frank’s story in The Ghost Writer ten years later and the series of masterworks starting in the mid-eighties—The Counterlife, Patrimony, Operation Shylock, Sabbath’s Theater, American Pastoral, The Human Stain—Roth has produced some of the great American literature of the modern era. And yet there has been no major critical work about him until now.
     Here, at last, is the story of Roth’s creative life. Roth Unbound is not a biography—though it contains a wealth of previously undisclosed biographical details and unpublished material—but something ultimately more rewarding: the exploration of a great writer through his art.
     Claudia Roth Pierpont, a staff writer for The New Yorker, has known Roth for nearly a decade. Her carefully researched and gracefully written account is filled with remarks from Roth himself, drawn from their ongoing conversations. Here are insights and anecdotes that will change the way many readers perceive this most controversial and galvanizing writer: a young and unhappily married Roth struggling to write; a wildly successful Roth, after the uproar over Portnoy, working to help writers from Eastern Europe and to get their books known in the West; Roth responding to the early, Jewish—and the later, feminist—attacks on his work. Here are Roth’s family, his inspirations, his critics, the full range of his fiction, and his friendships with such figures as Saul Bellow and John Updike. Here is Roth at work and at play.
     Roth Unbound is a major achievement—a highly readable story that helps us make sense of one of the most vital literary careers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

 

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Literature, History, 21st Century, Writing, Essays

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 22, 2013

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

All novelists with 50 year careers deserve a book like this which could not be better or neater – Roth had just retired and completed his life’s work and Claudia Pierpont seized the time and interviewed him about all his stuff and then wrote a solid account of the whole garrulous controversial Rothiverse book by book. I read this to try to figure out my profound ambivalence about Big Roth who was undoubtedly brilliant but also really quite vile. The score so far for me is :

Operation Shylock, Portnoy’s Complaint and Nemesis : great
American Pastoral : wellll……. Maybe
Sabbath’s Theater, The Dying Animal, The Humbling and Everyman : Hated!!

And there are revelations on every other page. Who knew, for instance, that Philip Roth was a Jewish writer? Sorry, I’ll rephrase that – who knew he was SUCH a COMPLETELY Jewish writer? Not a page goes by in this book without Jews and Jewishness being accosted, interrogated, undermined, belaboured, supported, torn down, caricatured, sentimentalised over, defended and mocked savagely. Also who knew that Roth so very often wrote about writers? (That is one of my personal babadooks – do I want to read a book about a guy writing a book which may be the very book I’m reading? Er, no. Not even slightly. It’s such a tiresome cliché. And yet so many many novels are about novelists. Hey, novelists, don’t write what you know.)

His first and biggest hit was of course Portnoy’s Complaint in 1969, a full ten years after his first one Goodbye Columbus. Ten years of not much happening and then wham, a million dollars and people calling your novel “the book for which all anti-semites have been praying”. After that he returned to writing stuff nobody liked that much (Our Gang, My Life as a Man, The Professor of Desire) until finally 22 more years later boom! Boom! Boom! Operation Shylock , Sabbath’s Theater and American Pastoral got them rolling in the aisles again followed smartly by his one other actual genuine real best-seller The Plot Against America. I count 28 novels in total - some quite short but still, heck, that’s a lot.

It was My Life as a Man in 1974 which started off what Claudia calls “Roth’s big trouble with women”. She says : “the word ‘misogyny’ stuck”. The London Review of Books once said that in Roth’s books

The women are hardly more than receptacles for semen, emotional punching-bags or ministering angels

And Claire Bloom, his English actress partner of 20 plus years, wrote a memoir in 1996 (Leaving a Doll’s House) and had a few choice phrases for Philip including saying he had “a deep and irrepressible rage” toward women. Linda Grant in the (British) Guardian wrote that she would

Rather read a dozen books of Rothian misogyny [than] a single page of Alison Lurie or Carol Shields or Annie Proulx [but] if there ever was a misogynist, Roth Is one.

Wow, with fans like that who needs enemies.

Actually this was like a career of two halves – first the Jewish American part in which many Jews accused him of self loathing and portraying the very worst aspects of Jewishness, culminating in the fantastic anti-Jewish ranting of Operation Shylock; then the sexual shenanigans of the second half when he got slagged off for misogyny – out of many possibilities maybe the culmination of that is in The Humbling where his 70 year old hero has sex with a lesbian, and not just sex but a threesome featuring a green strapon. (I’m not sure why the colour is always mentioned but it is.) Although The Dying Animal got a lot of people’s goat too – even Claudia, Rothophile as she is, confesses “it’s not difficult to understand the anger that Kepesh (the protagonist) provokes… Roth seems at times to court it”.

And in defending him she ends up saying

Kepesh makes a speciality of saying things one should not say. And if only for this, it’s worth listening to him.

Well, since you could say the same thing about Mein Kampf I think that’s not such a good argument.

I think the jury’s out on Philip Roth. But that’s not saying a lot, jury’s out on everybody except Shakespeare. But one thing is true, if you are a Roth fan, and you haven’t read Roth Unbound, you have a treat in store.

[Jason Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pierpont had access to the man himself, so this critical overview is going to loom a long time. That's what happens with books that are perceived as roadmaps (see Stuart Gilbert). Pierpont has a mind of her own, though, and isn't afraid to dis some of Roth's books. In fact, I'm a little alarmed by the way she dismisses vintage Roth works like My Life as a Man and The Professor of Desire, but for the most part she is right on in her judgments. She's an excellent reader, really. That her general view of the oeuvre probably aligns fairly snugly with Roth's own doesn't need to be a problem.

It's a true Roth immersion, and you do bump up against some the old off-putting qualities—his closet elitism, his almost morbid preoccupation with recognition. His decades-long pursuit of Saul Bellow's approval strikes me as pure competitiveness. One also grows tired of the endless affairs in his stories between middle-aged men and young women. Which brings us (sorry) to the charges of chauvinism, misogyny, objectification. I find the breast glorification in The Dying Animal laughable, and I flinch a little when Roth describes Milan Kundera's English-speaking wife translating a particularly intense conversation between them—after which, Roth says, it was like they'd both had sex with her (maybe Roth, deep down, wanted to have sex with the husband). But overall I find the misogyny arguments a bit beside the point, if not downright philistine, and so does Pierpont. The fact that it is a woman defending Roth on this matter carries some weight, and this certainly crossed his mind when Roth handpicked her for this critical profile. (Blake Bailey, also handpicked, is at work on the full-blown biography.)

At some point you have to brush all the distractions aside. Roth is the poet of trouble. Being liked (or even disliked) isn't his goal; his books are for people who've gotten past such reasons for reading. The vividness and terrible honesty of his vision are enough.

[Blackjessamine · Rating 4 out of 5]

La scrittura della Pierpont non mi ha del tutto entusiasmata, l'ho trovata un po' piatta e ripetitiva. Tuttavia, credo che avrei divorato un libro del genere anche se fosse stato scritto da un ragazzino delle scuole medie: leggere di Philip Roth e dei libri di Philip Roth è sempre una gioia per l'anima. In generale, amo moltissimo leggere le biografie degli autori che apprezzo, ma nel caso di Roth l'esperienza è stata ancora più intensa: nei libri di Roth c'è così tanto della vita di Roth (dietro la maschera di Nathan Zuckermann o di un personaggio chiamato, guarda un po', Philip Roth) che conoscere quello chi è l'autore è fondamentale. E al tempo stesso, è fondamentale capire quando invece, come in "Lamento di Portnoy", di Roth c'è molto meno di quanto la critica voglia fare credere.
Avevo letto solamente due romanzi di questo grande uomo, ma sono contenta di essere incappata in questa biografia (che credo non sia nemmeno del tutto una biografia, dal momento che i capitoli seguono soprattutto la produzione letteraria di Roth, e gli episodi biografici sono solo un pretesto, uno sfondo, qualcosa di cui parlare per meglio approfondire la trattazione letteraria) prima di gettarmi a capofitto nella scoperta della sua bibliografia. Perché ora so cosa aspettarmi, e ho qualche strumento in più per apprezzare più a fondo la sua produzione.
E niente, la voglia di affrontare l'intera produzione letteraria di Roth in ordine cronologico ora è tanta, e chissà, con i giusti intermezzi potrebbe anche rivelarsi un progetto fattibile.

[Daniel Benevides · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misto de biografia e análise crítica de cada um dos livros de Roth. Foi escrito a partir de conversas com o próprio, ao longo de muitos anos. Satisfaz o lado voyeur do leitor na mesma medida em que dá bons insights sobre a obra do escritor. Às vezes se detém demais no resumo das tramas, o que pode ser um pouco cansativo. E, pra quem não leu os livros, tem spolilers pra todo lado! Mas vale muito a pena.

[Hani Omar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will not, by any means, put to bed any of the (often heated) disagreement and debate surrounding Roth's works over the decades, nor does the author (no relation to the subject) intend it to. As much literary documentary as literary biography, Roth Unbound actively engages the subject in the story being told about him, as participant, informer, and witness to his own life's work. Resultantly (and as with so many of Roth's works) it is often difficult to separate the authorial voice from that of the subject himself, a feint that the author seems consciously aware of. If you tend to read in Roth a kind of casual misogyny masquerading as careless male prurience, Roth Unbound will probably not break any new ground for you. If you believe Philip Roth to be one of the most lyrically penetrating chroniclers of Modern American "identity", and all the falsehoods, aspirations, and pathologies associated with it, Roth Unbound will re-demonstrate for you why in several thousand pages less time than it would take to reread all of his novels (even the bad ones from the early '70s that nobody remembers). And if you believe fervently in the veracity of both positions, Roth Unbound will (I hope) helpfully underscore for you that you are, indeed, not alone this view.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly very engaging book-by-book study/light biography of Philip Roth by literary critic/writer Claudia Roth Pierpont (no relation). Having just read the monumental Blake Bailey bio a month or two before I began this one, I could've used less in the way of biographical details and more in the way of literary analysis, but I guess I can't really fault Roth Pierpont for not catering exclusively to my reading itinerary. Her tastes in Roth mostly align with mine (at least as far as what I've read thus far), though I think she is at times overly dismissive of certain works (Letting Go and The Professor of Desire, to name two, both of which I think are among his best work; I'm relatively lonely on the first note but not so much on the second, and so I think Roth Pierpont owes a well regarded book more of a hearing out than she affords it) and eager to dispense with them without much thought. But overall a good book-length study of one of the great novelists of the Postwar United States.

[Saverio Mariani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leggere Philip Roth è un'esperienza che lascia, dopo la lettura, il sentimento costante e implacabile della meraviglia.
Leggere un libro su Philip Roth e sui suoi libri è ciò che, da lettore di Roth, mi ha attirato velocemente verso questo testo.

Il libro è costruito cronologicamente sulle opere di Roth, egli parla poco rispetto alle digressioni che la Pierpont fa e ai riassunti-spiegoni dei libri di Philip. Alcune pagine sono troppo lunghe, arrovellate troppo su congetture e parallelismi che lasciano un po' il tempo che trovano. Molto più interessanti i momenti in cui si racconta la vita di Philip Roth e l'indissolubile legame con i personaggi costruiti dallo scrittore e dai suoi alter-ego.
L'analisi delle opere effettuata dalla Pierpont, inoltre, ha spesso un unico termine di paragone, eretto (evidentemente) dalla scrittrice a miglior libro di Philip Roth. Ella, infatti, paragona ogni scritto alla forza e alla de-sacralizzante scrittura di Lamento di Portnoy, che è certamente uno dei migliori testi di Roth, ma non certo (a mio parere) maturo e completo come Pastorale americana o La macchia umana, per esempio.

La scrittura è densa, forse troppo. Piena di subordinate e para-subordinate che appesantiscono un po' troppo. Molte le parentesi aperte che, forse, potevano essere alternate ad un sistema di notazione a piè pagina che si confà certamente a quello che è un saggio sulla vita e i libri di Philip Roth. (Inoltre, piccola critica di editing: da quel che ne so io nelle parentesi aperte dopo il punto – esattamente come questa in cui sto scrivendo –, il punto di chiusura frase va messo dentro la parentesi, non fuori.)

In conclusione, si tratta di una bella ricostruzione storica e narrativa, di un testo interessante per tentare di capire come la vita dell'uomo Roth sia entrata nei libri di Roth. Purtroppo, però, nemmeno questo testo riesce a spiegare bene come ha fatto l'uomo Roth, per cinquant'anni ad essere così dedito alla scrittura, capace di una produzione narrativa straordinaria. A questo mistero, ne son sempre più convinto, risponde la meraviglia che ci rimane dopo aver chiuso uno dei suoi straordinari romanzi.

[Isabel Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente resumen de la vida de un escritor maravilloso, en donde la realidad supera a la ficción.
Un libro que me hubiese gustado haber escrito.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wie door het nieuws van Philip Roths overlijden geprikkeld is om zich weer eens in zijn werk te verdiepen, kan natuurlijk beter een van zijn romans (her)lezen. (Mijn tips: The Ghostwriter en Sabbath's Theater.).
Maar Roth Pierponts boek over Roth is geen slechte tweede keus. Het is heel goed geschreven en bevat wat interessante nieuwe biografische informatie. Pierpont heeft Roth redelijk goed gekend, en biografische informatie is bepaald relevant bij het oeuvre van een auteur die in zijn werk altijd zo opzichtig met zijn eigen biografische gegevens heeft gespééld.

Verder zijn haar beschrijvingen van de romans vaak bijzonder raak. Waarbij het natuurlijk helpt dat ze mijn smaak deelt. Die smaak (de mijne dan) komt hierop neer: in de jaren 80 en 90 schreef Roth zijn beste werk, met name de cyclus komische Zuckerman-romans en Sabbath's Theater; van de boeken daarvoor zijn alleen Goodbye Columbus en Portnoy's Complaint werkelijk belangrijke titels; het – in Nederland helaas buitenproportioneel bewierookte – werk dat hij na 1995 heeft geproduceerd is soms interessant en doorgaans wel goed geschreven, maar over het algemeen wat te zwaar op de hand, te serieus, een beetje te levenloos in vergelijking met het exuberante werk uit zijn hoogtijdagen.)

Enfin, Roth Pierpont weet dat allemaal nog veel beter uit te leggen dan ik. Bij het lezen van haar (verfrissend non-academische) samenvattingen van de romans en de dwarsverbanden die ze in zijn oeuvre legt, dacht ik maar al te vaak: dat is precies wat ik over zijn romans zou willen zeggen. En over Exit Ghost, een roman die mij zeer tegenviel, is zij dan weer zo aanstekelijk enthousiast dat ik de neiging krijg die te gaan herlezen om te zien of ik misschien toch iets gemist heb.

Een onderhoudend en informatief boek voor iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in het oeuvre van Philip Roth dus. En het Engelse origineel verdient in dit geval de voorkeur boven de vertaling (waarin ik ook wat heb gegrasduind – genoeg om te constateren dat die weliswaar vlot loopt, maar niet altijd even nauwkeurig is).

[Frabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ampia biografia di Philip Roth, vita e opere - binomio inscindibile -, scritta con evidente (meritata) ammirazione ma pure con sufficiente (doverosa) analisi critica, adatta soprattutto a chi, letti i libri, intende ulteriormente avvicinarsi all'autore: "Roth scatenato" è una miniera che regala nuovi preziosi elementi di conoscenza e un museo nel quale rivivere passo passo il lungo affascinante percorso del grande scrittore e della sua arte.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this first for Salon's "Ultimate Book Guide for 2013":

Most biographies of writers are heavy on minutiae and surprisingly unilluminating about artistry. Roth Pierpont (no relation to Philip) dispenses with the unnecessary, invoking Roth’s life only to the degree that it extends our understanding of the work. She’s a fan, but a clear-eyed and unfawning one. And she writes terrifically well herself, offering intelligent, intuitive readings while making a convincing case for the cohesion of Roth’s oeuvre — the supposed duds often being transitional works on the path to new breakthroughs. The man, too, comes alive in this compulsively readable appreciation.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/26/salon...

[Dymbula · Rating 4 out of 5]

+ půl hvězdičky navíc. Kdo má rád Rotha, měl by si tuhle knížku přečíst, kdo nezná Rotha, měl by si tuhle knížku přečíst, kdo nemá rád Rotha, mohl by si ji přečíst taky. Perfektně zpracovaná knížka o Rothovi o jeho knížkách, o jiných spisovatelích, o literatuře. (A ještě něco navíc, to jméno Roth v autorčině jménu nemá s Rothem nic příbuzensky společného - náhoda)

[Jeff Clausen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-done biography/critical overview of Roth’s life, works and influence. This book works best if you’ve read some of his novels, of which there are plenty, since many of the characters and plots are analyzed with a sharp eye. Fortunately, Roth has used many of the same characters over and over, giving us multiple chances to learn about Nathan Zuckerman or his many female companions; meanwhile these folks don’t stay the same and sometimes radically change, which is also discussed at great length. And as we read about Roth’s fiction, we learn of his personal ups and downs, again of which there are many. The book benefits greatly from author interviews with Roth as an elder statesmen in the literary world. And while Roth’s reputation and name have been cemented in our consciousness for many years, this volume both adds to, and chips away, at him, and gives a remarkable perspective on a writer’s life.

[Marcello S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Panoramica commentata di tutta l’opera di Roth, da Goodbye, Columbus (1959) a Nemesi (2010).
Una disamina dell’evoluzione della sua scrittura e dei suoi temi principali (ebrei, sesso, genitori e figli, identità, corpo, malattia, vecchiaia), con parecchi riferimenti alla vita privata (lavoro, viaggi, relazioni).
Imperdibile per fanatici o curiosi.

[77/100]

[Julie Ditton]

This analysis of the works of Phillip Roth looks intriguing.

I saw this book on a list of books for Jewish American Heritage Month that was created by The Artists against Antisemitism. https://bookshop.org/lists/jewish-ame... .

[Paulo Sousa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro lido 4°/set//47°/2017
Título: Roth libertado
Título original: Roth unbound
Autor: Cláudia Roth Pierpont (EUA)
Tradutor: Carlos Afonso Malferrari
Editora: @companhiadasletraa
Ano de lançamento: 2014
Ano desta edição: 2015
Páginas: 460
Classificação: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
__________________________________________________
Se há certa temeridade de minha parte em reler alguns autores (como os verei nessa releitura?), há enorme frisson ao ler biografias de escritores que amo e de cujos livros me dedico a ler.

Já é notória minha predileção especial por Philip Roth. Maior escritor americano vivo, compôs uma magistral obra literária cujos livros, aclamados (muitos) e odiados (outros tantos) que são um verdadeiro retrato da sociedade americana sob uma ótica devastadora, crua e sem censura. Livros como “O complexo de Portnoy” e “O animal agonizante” causaram polêmica e severas acusações de misoginia ao autor, mesmo anos depois de publicados. Temas espinhosos como a questão judaica, o sexo, a crise de identidade aos valores americanos, são recorrentes em seus livros, mas sempre numa roupagem que instiga o leitor.

Mas Philip Roth teve, à sua maneira, suas fases também. Com o passar dos anos de uma carreira literária que já viu de tudo (Roth está com 84 anos), Roth pode ambientar seus temas, para muitos repetitivos mas não pouco instigantes, em livros mais curtos e mais objetivos. “Urgência” foi uma palavra usada pela autora desta biografia, como se o próprio Roth, antevendo seu fim, quisera poder exaurir tudo o que passava em sua mente inquieta.

Este livro conta a história da carreira literária de Philip Roth. Não fugindo ao clichê, Cláudia Roth buscou nas muitas horas de conversas com o autor, no atento exame de seus arquivos, a inspiração para cada livro seu, e consequentemente o cenário em que foram concebidos sem deixar de considerar as próprias motivações do escritor. Roth nasceu em Newark, vindo de uma família judia de classe operária. Diversos aspectos de sua infância até o ingresso na universidade são pano de fundo em seus livros, mas neste livro magistral, vamos acompanhando a trajetória de Roth até que seus primeiros contos (Adeus, Columbus), sejam publicados e ganhem notoriedade no meio literário iniciando uma carreira inquestionavelmente notável.

Com os anos vieram os demais livros que cravaram definitivamente o nome de Philip Roth no time “A” da literatura norte-americana, mais que merecidamente. Cláudia Roth, numa prosa ágil e dinâmica, vai destrinchando cada livro (há muitos spoilers, é verdade, mas nada que atrapalhe a expectativa de lê-los), os bastidores da sua vida amorosa nada frugal e claro, as ligações com outros colossos da literatura, como a notável e longa amizade de Roth com o também escritor Saul Bellow e as querelas entre Roth e John Updike, outro escritor que gosto muito, e que separaram os dois depois de Updike ter escrito um artigo que desagradou profundamente a Roth, motivo do fim da amizade entre os dois.

Eu ainda não li todos os livros de Philip Roth. Comecei justamente pelo último dele, o “Nêmesis”. Vieram depois “O avesso da vida”, “A marca humana”, “Patrimônio”, “Homem comum” e o último dele que li, o bombástico (literalmente) “Pastoral americana”. Mas percorrendo atentamente as páginas de Cláudia Roth Pierpont, sabendo detalhes de livros que ainda lerei, não tira a expectativa de encontrar ali mais uma dose cavalar desse que é para mim a marca suprema da América em forma de literatura.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved learning the stories behind the books.

Notes:
8..Joe Louis on retiring: I did all I could with what I had
15..emigration from Polish Galicia
54..Portnoy..digressions, diversions, excursions were all permissable...were, in fact, the way to go...T Shandy example
58..parents' endless fears and admonitions...not judicious, but infuriating
75..A Farewell to Arms
172..made a life for his family out of sheer dutifulness and spirited decency
189..Sabbath's Theater began when Roth was looking for a place to be buried. ...someone grave-shopping might be interesting---especially if he's going to commit suicide
194..Drenka ecstatic to be living on earth
198..let in the repellent
203..childhood memories rendered in hard, clean nouns..
218..don't write about my convictions...I write about the comic and tragic consequences of holding convictions
228..suing Bloom wasn't where he wanted to put his energy
265..in his old age he has become Tolstoy...urgent need to communicate his particular truths
266..Stanley Spence's double nude of him & wife, beside 2 pieces of raw meat
272..Plot against America..opp to bring parents back from the grave
284..Everyman ...death and funerals and holes in the ground
301..Jains' gauze masks to avoid inhaling insects
320..Godfather once a year, mostly for the Daumier faces
321..Afterthoughts, Memories,and Discoveries: At It Again
Faulkner: As I lay dying

6/15/18 note. In the PBS American Masters profile, Roth said that Portnoy was inspired by his ability to make his friends laugh. Writing it as a therapy session gave him the freedom to hold nothing back.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a good read, but not quite the read I would have liked it to be. Pierpont places too much emphasis on the stories behind the stories, and it isn’t Roth’s stories that led me to read all of his novels. It’s his writing. There is little information about the writing behind the writing, or about the writing itself. But if there were, how many people would read the book?

This book can best be appreciated by those who have read a number of Roth's novels. For one thing, it gives away everything, plotwise. And who wants to hear the story behind a story one hasn't read? That's why, as a Roth reader, I gave the book four stars, primarily for its readability and bringing back of good reading memories. But it's certainly not for everyone.

[Ryan Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pierpont's evenhanded and sharply intelligent study of Roth's writing makes you yearn for an entire genre of similar books. I enjoyed this much more than a straightforward biography, as the focus is much more on the books, their genesis, and their reception than on the kind of thorough-for-thorough's sake details you'd otherwise find. Highly recommended for Roth fans as well as new readers. (Though if you haven't read him at all, I'd start with The Ghost Writer and Portnoy's Complaint.)

[Michael Lynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic if you’re a Roth fan. Interesting biographical information interspersed with intelligent critique of the work, and she became a friend. Useful guide for which novels to read and a great place holder whilst we await the biography.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent analysis of Roth's work too...has shed a lot of light on Roth books I've read to date and on those I plan to read.

[Thomas St. John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! A very detailed exploration of Roth and his works. Pierpont, while friends with Roth, retains a non-bias view of the author and his works. A must-read for any serious reader of Roth.

[Costin Manda · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a period of reading only fantasy books, I've decided it was time to get to something more serious. So I started reading Roth Unbound, by Claudia Roth Pierpoint. Funny enough, the book is a biography of Philip Roth, an influential Jewish-American writer, written by a person named Roth that has no relation to him.

Anyway, the thing is I am fascinated by what people think and feel when doing things, so I love well written auto-biographies. However, this book is written by someone else than the subject of the biography and, worse, it reads like a factual history mingled with commentary on the guy's art. In its defense, it was not supposed to be a biography at all. I got to about 10% of it when I decided I will not continue reading it. And it's too bad, because from the few things I did manage to read, Philip Roth is a very interesting fellow.

Well, the bottom line is that I will rate this book low for reasons of not being able to feel anything about anything while reading other than pure boredom, regretting the interesting facts that I am probably missing.

On the bright side, there is a Philip Roth Unleashed BBC documentary from 2014 that can be found on YouTube split into part 1 and part 2, not to be confused with Tim Roth Unleashed, which is the web site of the actor Tim Roth. How many Roths are there, for crying out loud?!

[James Winter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the book is subtitled "A Writer and His Books," I think I should be a little more forgiving with my rating. As a thoroughly researched explication of Roth's work inside the context of his life, I enjoyed Pierpont's writing. Having read Roth thoroughly, however, I wanted more insight about his life as well as the reaction to his novels. Sometimes, I feel these chapters are too grounded in an analysis of his publications' triumphs and failures. I understand that for Roth, writing is/was his life, that in his words everything else came secondary, but there are several parts of this book, like the marvelous last chapter, that shows us a man in context of his family, friends, and relations. These moments give the literary analysis both more and less weight, and allows Roth as a subject to be not bound by his books, but free to live and breathe--and make and admit to his mistakes--outside of them.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing biography, because Ms. Pierpont knew Roth well (no, she is not a relative!), but more importantly, she manages to combine a study of Philip Roth's life and his works with her personal anecdotes and knowledge of the "real" person (very tricky with someone like Roth, who was often identified with his characters). I learned a tremendous amount about books I had read (and those I have not yet read), and also about Roth's personality, character, and background. Yes, Ms. Pierpont is not entirely objective (she was one of the people to whom he sent his pre-publication drafts over the years for her opinion), but at the same time, her personal insights are invaluable...I highly recommend this book, if you are someone who has read a lot or a little of Roth, and if you care about a major writer of the 20th (through the 21st) century.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, Pierpont is soft on some of the more troubling aspects of Roth's oeuvre, but I wouldn't call the book "fan fiction," as the New Republic labeled it. It's clear what Pierpont thinks of each book, for instance, and she certainly labels a bunch of them (noble) failures. Ultimately, I really enjoyed and appreciated the way she pulled together criticism and biography to illuminate the books themselves. The quotes from and vignettes about Roth were also very illuminating. For someone like me, who has read a lot of but not all of Roth's books, this study helped me to see the larger arc of his career and thematic concerns. For what it sets out to do, the book strikes me as a rousing success.

[Dr. Jon Pirtle]

If Roth's books were as good as this bio of Roth and his books, I would read more of them. But how many times does an atheistic prurient angry intellectual have to write the same story? For Philip Roth, he did it for decades. I, for one, do not enjoy his books. He is, for some reason, however, a staple of American literature, so I press on. But if you want a wonderful bio of P. Roth, Claudia Pierpont's book is truly enjoyable. She balances anecdotes from P. Roth's conversations, marriages, adulteries, divorces, novels, and the novels' characters brilliantly. Well done, C. Pierpont. A wonderful read of a, in my estimation, not-so-admirable-but-still-influential, American novelist.

[Steve Mayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone wanting to read (or re-read) Philip Roth. This book by Claudia Roth Pierpont (no relation) is entertaining and insightful, as it explores the multiple ways in which Roth has transformed his life and the lives of those around him into fiction. Which is not to say that the books are roman-a-clef's--as Roth continually reminds us, it's the job of the novelist to make stuff up. She had multiple conversations with Roth about his life and work, and it shows. On to The Facts, for Roth's own version of part of the life.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned more about Roth (I realize now) than I ever wanted to know. Somehow I had thought he was a mystery writer. I was unpleasantly surprised. However, the reason I first got interested in his biography was because he had been married to Claire Bloom, a uniquely gifted actress, popular with American and English audiences.

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 4 out of 5]

«Io scrivo delle conseguenze comiche e tragiche delle convinzioni che nutriamo». – Philip Roth (p. 256)