Shop Talk: A Writer and His Colleagues and Their Work

by Philip Roth

Deeply intimate encounters between the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Pastoral and the greatest writers and artists of the 20th century—from Primo Levi and Milan Kundera to Edna O’Brien and Philip Guston.
 
“Roth manages to tease from his subjects the convictions that fuel their work and the vulnerabilities that make them human.” — The New York Times Book Review

In Philip Roth’s intimate intellectual conversations with an international and diverse cast of writers, they explore the importance of region, politics and history in their work and trace the imaginative path by which a writer’s highly individualized art is informed by the wider conditions of life.

With Primo Levi, Roth discusses the stubborn core of rationality that helped the Italian chemist-writer survive the demented laboratory of Auschwitz. With Milan Kundera, he analyzes the mix of politics and sexuality that made him the most subversive writer in communist Czechoslovakia. With Edna O’Brien, he explores the circumstances that have forced generations of Irish writers into exile.

Elsewhere Roth offers appreciative portraits of two friends—the writer Bernard Malamud and the painter Philip Guston—at the end of their careers, and gives us a masterful assessment of the work of Saul Bellow. Intimate, charming, and crackling with ideas about the interplay between imagination and the writer’s historical situation, Shop Talk is a literary symposium of the highest level, presided over by America’s foremost novelist.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Essays, Literature, American, Jewish, Books About Books

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection Goodbye, Columbus, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Ten years later, he published the bestseller Portnoy's Complaint. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Philip Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history The Plot Against America.
Roth was one of the most honored American writers of his generation. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for The Counterlife, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock, The Human Stain, and Everyman, a second National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater, and the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. In 2005, the Library of America began publishing his complete works, making him the second author so anthologized while still living, after Eudora Welty. Harold Bloom named him one of the four greatest American novelists of his day, along with Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo. In 2001, Roth received the inaugural Franz Kafka Prize in Prague.

Reviews

[Nasrin M · Rating 4 out of 5]

۴☆

[capobanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In questa breve raccolta di interviste -tutte molto interessanti per l’efficacia spedita delle presentazioni, l’acume delle domande e delle risposte, la lucida profondità delle osservazioni- brillano l’intelligenza di Milan Kundera e l’esattissima disamina finale delle meravigliose e imprendibili opere di Saul Bellow.

Se all’apparenza a legare quasi tutte le interviste c’è il tema dell’ebraicità migrante, risulta alla fine dominante il tema dell’esilio, l’esperienza psichicamente irreversibile dell’abbandono forzato dei propri luoghi, della propria famiglia, della propria lingua, della propria radice più profonda; il trasferimento di se stessi in una terra di mezzo nella quale non si può stare e non si può non stare. E, scrittori o non scrittori, ebrei o non ebrei, questo è un tema che ci riguarda tutti.

Un piccolo gioiello.

[Wojciech Szot · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mistrzowie. Spotkania z twórcami” to dziesięć fantastycznych szkiców Philipa Rotha, z których przynajmniej kilka zasługuje na szczególną naszą uwagę. Zmarły przed trzema laty amerykański pisarz publikował swoje szkice-wywiady od drugiej połowy lat 70. po końcówkę XX wieku. A wśród jego rozmówców znaleźli się m.in. Primo Levi, Ivan Klima i Icchok Baszewis Singer.

Specyficzne to wywiady, bo Roth przeważnie zaczyna od krótkich opowieści wokół dzieła swojego rozmówcy, a w samej rozmowie czasem więcej miejsca zajmują uwagi i pytania autora “Kompleksu Portnoya”, niż odpowiedzi. Łączy dzięki temu Roth wykład z wywiadem, szkic biograficzny z opowieścią żywego człowieka i choć chwilami (zwłaszcza przy rozmowie z Primo Levim) chciałoby się, żeby więcej uwagi poświęcił nie swoim rozważaniom, a interlokutorowi, to wciąż mamy do czynienia z wciągającymi i niezwykle interesującymi tekstami. Jednocześnie czytelników mylić może polski tytuł sugerujący coś bardziej monumentalnego, niż dostajemy w tej pięknie wydanej książce. Oryginalny tytuł - “Shop Talk” sugeruje jednak teksty, w których obydwaj rozmówcy dzielą się ze sobą własnym doświadczeniem na zasadzie równorzędności. Zatem jest to również książka o samym Rothcie i jego fascynacjach.

Z Primo Levim Roth rozmawia o pracy - naukowca (Levi był chemikiem) i pisarza, ale też więźnia Auschwitz, nad którego bramą wisiał napis mówiący, że praca może uczynić człowieka wolnym. Jednak - jak mówi Levi - “praca bez celu”, a taką było “Arbeit” w Auschwitz, “rodzi jedynie cierpienie i atrofię”. I dodaje, że obserwował w obozie “dziwne zjawisko” - potrzebę wykonywania swojej pracy dobrze. “Włoski murarz, któremu zawdzięczam życie, gdyż przez pół roku przynosił mi po cichu jedzenie, nienawidził Niemców, ich jedzenia, języka i wojny; ale kiedy kazali mu stawiać mury, wznosił proste i solidne ściany, nie z posłuszeństwa, lecz zawodowej godności”. Roth bardzo wprost pyta Leviego choćby o to, czy nadal we Włoszech czuje się “elementem nieczystym”, czy też “poczucie odrębności zanikło”. Skonfundowany tym pytaniem Levi zauważa, że jest autorem czytanym przez uczniów już w szkole średniej, a jego “‘osobność” uległa zmianie” - jest anomalią jako pisarz wywodzący się nie z uniwersyteckiego czy literackiego establishmentu, lecz świata przemysłu. Na koniec rozmowy dodaje - “niczego nie żałuję. Nie uważam, że moja praca w fabryce była stratą czasu (...) pozwoliła mi utrzymać kontakt z realnym światem”.

Drugim rozmówcą Rotha jest Aharon Appelfeld, zmarły w tym samym co Roth roku izraelski pisarz, autor książki, o której zawsze sobie przypominam, gdy ktoś znowu chce pisać o lecie 1939 roku, czyli “Badenheim 1939” (przeł. Henryk Szafir). Co zaskakujące, jak zauważa Roth, bezpośrednio “Holokaust, ani prześladowanie Żydów nie są przedmiotem jego pisarstwa”, a jego dzieło “oddaje mentalność wygnańca”. Appelfeld był bowiem “wygnanym autorem wygnanej literatury”. W ich rozmowie najwięcej uwagi poświęca Roth Kafce i Schulzowi, którzy są pisarzami bliskimi izraelskiemu twórcy. “Dzięki Kafce poznałem mapę świata absurdu i jego urok, niezmiernie mi - zasymilowanemu Żydowi - potrzebne”, mówi Appelfeld. O żydowskim doświadczeniu II wojny światowej mówi zaś: “Zderzyliśmy się z archaicznymi mitycznymi siłami, rodzajem, mrocznej podświadomości, której znaczenia nie znaliśmy wówczas i nie znamy dzisiaj. Ten świat jawi się jako racjonalny (były pociągi, rozkład jazdy, stacje kolejowe, inżynierowie), ale w rzeczywistości mamy do czynienia z podróżami wyobraźni, kłamstwami i bajaniami (...)”. Pisarz zauważa, że “oszukanie Żydów okazał się niezwykle dziecinnym zadaniem”. W końcu nawet pod koniec lat 30. wielu z nich wierzyło, że przyszłość nie będzie aż tak straszna jak wieszczono. Ta “łatwowierność” sprawiła - zdaniem Appelfeld - że dali się “zapędzić” do gett i “karmić fałszywą nadzieją”. Ta “ślepota i głuchota” jest z jednej strony tragiczna, a z drugiej świadczy o głębokim człowieczeństwie. To słabość, w której autor “Badenheim 1939” - jak mówi - się zakochał.

Ciekawie mówi też interlokutor Rotha o fikcji i Holokauście. Próbując wiele razy opisać swoje przeżycia zauważył, że nie ma możliwości “dochowania wierności prawdzie i faktycznym zdarzeniom”, przez co efekt jego pracy był co najmniej niezadowalający. “Rzeczy najbardziej prawdziwe łatwo zafałszować”, mówi Rothowi. Rzeczywistość zdaniem Appelfelda może być “niewiarygodna”, książka - przeciwnie, musi wydawać się czytelnikowi godna zaufania. “Rzeczywistość Holokaustu przerosła wszelką wyobraźnię”, dodaje.

Roth z czeskim pisarzem Ivanem Klímą, autorem rozliczeniowej “Godziny ciszy” (tłum.
Maria Erhardtowa) rozmawia o Kafce i Havlu, a dla polskiego czytelnika z pewnością perłą w koronie tego wyboru będzie wywiad z Icchokiem Baszawisem Singerem. Panowie rozmawiają o Schulzu, którego Singer stawia przed Kafką w swoim prywatnym panteonie literackim.

Singer próbuje Rothowi wyjaśnić różnice pomiędzy zasymilowanymi polskimi Żydami, a tymi piszącymi w jidysz. Zauważa, że twórcy tacy jak Tuwim, Słonimski czy Wittlin “znakomicie opanowali polszczyznę”, a obie grupy “odnosiły się do siebie z pogardą”. Pisarze jidyszowi uważali, że “tamci odcięli się od swoich korzeni i kultury i stali się częścią polskiej kultury”, dla nich “młodszej i mniej ważnej”. Zdaniem zasymilowanych Żydów twórcy literatury jidysz pisali “dla niewykształconych mas, biedoty”. A prawda po latach okazuje się taka, że “ani oni, ani my nie mieliśmy żadnego wyboru”. Jest też Singer krytyczny wobec Schulza, któremu zarzuca, że zbyt dużo energii traci na “parodię i karykaturę”, “szyderstwo”. Gdyby pisał w jidysz “nie miałby czasu na negatywizm i szyderstwo”, dodaje autor “Sztukmistrza z Lublina”.

Niezwykle mocno wybrzmiewa też końcówka rozmowy Rotha z Singerem. Noblista porównuje swój stosunek wobec Polski do żałoby. “Kiedy bliski nam człowiek umiera (...) po latach jednak powraca i w końcu niemal żyjemy ze zmarłym. Właśnie coś takiego przypadło mi w udziale. Polska, żydowskie życie w Polsce, jest teraz bliżej niż kiedykolwiek wcześniej”.

Edna O’Brien, irlandzka pisarka mówi Rothowi, że życie pisarza to “samotna wojaczka”, podczas której próbuje się “wykreować coś z niczego i odczuwa szczególny niepokój”. Świetne są te szkice i rozmowy, z pewnością dla każdego, kto znajduje przyjemność w czytaniu o czytaniu i pisaniu. To też ciekawy appendix do dzieła samego Rotha, który - co może zaskoczyć niektórych czytelników - sporo wiedział o polskiej i żydowsko-polskiej kulturze.

Jak zawsze w Austerii książka jest wydana prześlicznie i niezwykle poręcznie, a przełożyli ją Olga i Wojciech Kubińscy.

[Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro es un compendio de entrevistas en las que Roth empieza con Primo Levi, dando cuenta de su vida como químico y de las ventajas de pertenecer a una minoría étnica. Con Ahron Appelfeld trata obsesivamente de diseccionar la mente judía y con Iván Klimá analiza las cultura de la censura checa y el papel de la literatura clandestina. Isaac Bashevis Singer habla sobre la literatura de Bruno Schulz, y Milan Kundera sobre sentirse extranjero, la polifonía y el sexo. De Edna O'Brien se resalta su peculiar feminismo vernáculo y con Mary McCarthy, mantiene un intercambio epistolar resolviendo enigmas sobre la novela 'La contravida'. Con el último capítulo, sobre relecturas de la obra de Saul Bellow, una acaba confirmando que el libro en su conjunto destila mucha curiosidad cínica, pero lo disfrutaría el doble si me hubiese leído previamente todo el sinnúmero de obras literarias que se tratan.

[Alessandro Pontorno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando ami profondamente uno scrittore, il desiderio di leggerne tutto il leggibile è assai elevato e il rischio di trovarsi tra le mani libri "superflui" cresce in maniera esponenziale.
E' con questo timore reverenziale che mi sono avvicinato a "Chiacchiere di bottega", da un lato mosso dal desiderio di conoscere il Roth lettore, dall'altro spaventato dall'idea di immergermi in una lettura che nulla avesse da aggiungere al mio bagaglio culturale.
Con un sospiro di sollievo posso dire: quanto mi sbagliavo!
Per quanto mediati da un evidente lavoro editoriale, gli incontri, le chiacchiere, gli scambi epistolari tra Philip Roth e altri grandi scrittori (cito solo in ordine sparso: Malamud, Bellow, Kundera, Levi, Appelfeld, O'Brien, McCarthy) sono una vera e propria miniera di spunti di lettura e riflessioni che mi hanno emozionato e -francamente- rendono impietoso il confronto con i miei tentativi di parlare di letteratura.
Le pagine in cui Levi e Applefeld parlano di olocausto sono memorabili, come pure quelle in cui Kundera descrive l'orrore del totalitarismo.
Libri come questo e, per certi versi, come "I demoni e la pasta sfoglia" di Michele Mari, restano impressi nella memoria e hanno l'impagabile pregio di ricordare a ciascun amante della lettura che, proprio quando si crede di avere una biblioteca ben fornita, c'è sempre un validissimo scrittore che non si conosceva, c'è sempre un libro che merita di essere letto, c'è sempre una storia che deve essere raccontata.

[Mehrdad · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب مجموعه مصاحبه ها و مقالات فیلیپ راث(کیه که نشناسدش) با نويسندگان عمدتا یهودیه. توصیه می‌کنم در صورتی برید سراغش که از قبل چیزی از نویسندگانش خونده باشید(حداقل تعدادیش رو!). برای من لذت خاصی داشت آشنایی با دنیای فکری این آدم‌های بزرگ. به خصوص ایوان کلیما و میلان کوندرا که خیلی دوستشون دارم!

لیست مصاحبه ها:
پریمو لوی
آرون آپلفت
ایوان کلیما
آیزاک سینگر(درباره برونو شولتس)
میلان کوندرا
ادنا ابراین
مری مک کارتی
مقاله ای درباره برنارد مالامود
مقاله درباره نقاشی های فیلیپ گاستن
مقاله درباره کتاب‌های سال بلو

[Bruna Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ótimo! Achei alguns capítulos de autores específicos mais interessantes que outros, mas no geral, gostei bastante.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shop Talk: A Writer and His Colleagues and Their Work by Philip Roth displays the two qualities most evident in his nonfiction: intelligence and eloquence. In this collection he interviews or reflects on writers he has been close to, and whose work he has read carefully, starting with two Jewish writers whose lives were changed surviving the Holocaust, Primo Levi and Aaron Appelfield.

The Levi encounter is rich because of Levi's homebody lifestyle, post-Holocaust. This is interesting: He lived in his home town in Italy all his life and for money, and satisfaction, he was a manager in a paint factory. This piques Roth's interest. He doesn't know any writers who have stayed so far out of the cosmopolis. He also ventures to suggest that one of Levi's books, a novel, If Not Now, Wben? has a seemingly narrow and tendentious focus, rendering it less compelling that Levi's more autobiographical work. Levi disputes Roth's implicit judgement--that this novel is forced--but what interests me is the risk Roth takes here, and elsewhere, in delivering bad news to a fellow writer.

He says later on, in his piece on Bernard Malamud, that writers seldom talk to one another about their work for fear of giving offense, but when forced to do so (as when Malamud reads him a few humdrum pages of manuscript opening a work-in-progress), Roth has to say something, so he comes up with two comments that infuriate Malamud: that perhaps these shouldn't be the pages opening the novel and that he's curious about what happens next. Malamud answers that what happens next is irrelevant. He's pissed. That puts their friendship on ice for several years.

In talking with Appelfield, Roth does it again. He says that he encountered some "difficulty" in reading Badenheim 1939 because it is shorn of historical context (German persecution of Jews). His footwork is pretty fancy in saying this. Nonetheless, Appelfield, like the other writers, rebuts him. Why should there be any historical context when everyone knows the historical context? Well, in this case, I'm with Roth. This well-known novel doesn't have the impact it should. But it is also true that dramatizing more explicit aspects of the Nazi menace would have forced numerous aesthetic choices on Appelfield he simply did not care to explore.

An exchange with Mary McCarthy provides stingers on both sides. McCarthy didn't like The Counterlife, which is a weird experiment that self-detonates somewhere in Jerusalem, for reasons having to do with its portrayal of Christianity. She apologizes for this, but it's how she feels. Roth returns fire. All very civilized. But that's the end of the relationship.

The writer Roth adulates most and about whom he writes best (if indiscriminately) is Saul Bellow. He captures the explosion of Augie March perfectly and sets it apart from Bellow's first two novels, Dangling Man and The Victim. Then he goes on to deliver even higher marks to Herzog, well-deserved high marks, I would say, and the rest of Bellow's books through The Dean's December. My problem with this is that he overvalues Henderson the Rain King, Humboldt's Gift, and The Dean's December because he is so dazzled by Bellow, something of a mentor and a close friend. Those three books do seem forced to me, full of inside jokes. They lack the vitality of Mr. Sammler's Planet and certainly the peculiar exuberance of Augie March and Herzog.

Knowing a bit about Bellow, though not as much as Roth knew, I would venture that Roth would never risk offending him. An angry Bellow would make for a very dangerous friend.

For some reason, Roth inserts an essay/memoir about the painter Philip Guston. This makes little sense in a collection about writers, but I'm glad he did because it provides insight into my own encounter with Guston (via an exhibition) that confounded me. Guston seems to have suffered from fierce depression and at a point in his life after he had achieved success demonstrating a full range of painterly skills, he descended into a cartoonish reductionism in which he produced crude canvases depicting, for example, battered shoes. Ugly things. I was associated with a foundation that helped fund an exhibition of this stuff at the Reina Sofia in Madrid (back in the 1980s) and I can't say it was a pleasure encountering Guston's crushing depression and contempt for his own art. People said nice things, as they often do, but this was a pretty dreadful exhibition. Not liking what I saw, I left Guston behind until I read Roth's account of the man's struggles and perverse rationale. To explain that rationale, I refer to the philosopher Robert Nozick's comment to the effect that he, too, always wanted to write a book so dread-inspiring no one could read it. In Guston's case, he wanted to make paintings so awful no one could look at them, but being acclaimed, like Nozick, Guston's late work had to be looked at. Roth does a pretty good job exploring this darkness.

[Fred · Rating 2 out of 5]

i guess it's not news to anyone who has read philip roth's books that judaism is a major theme for him, but in picking up this book i hadn't realized that the authors (and one artist) he spoke with would nearly all be jewish and that the conversations would revolve around that fact quite so fully. i'm jewish myself and self-centered as i am i enjoy reading about judaism and jews of accomplishment, but a lot of the issues explored here didn't really resonate with me. i think i would have preferred a more traditional exploration of the writing process of these authors (something more like the interviews you see in the paris review). one interesting aspect of this book that isn't mentioned in the title, subtitle, or blurb on the back: kafka is a major and recurring theme in nearly all of the interviews, so if you're interested in getting some insights into kafka from many of his spiritual disciples, this would probably be a good book to read.

[(TraParentesi) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il guaio di libri così - in cui un gigante della letteratura va a trovare suoi pari e parlano di scrittura - è che ne esci con infiniti desideri librari che ti tirano come il filo dello spot Martini al culo di Charlize.
(Centocinquanta pagine col peso specifico di milllecinquecento).

[Matthew Wilder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Roth interviews or waxes profound on writers—and one painter, Philip Guston (unmemorably). His most awkward interview is with Edna O’Brien—and of the whole bunch, hers turns out to be the most quietly profound and personally revealing. I must confess that I have spent a lifetime NOT reading Milan Kundera, but his mix of wittiness and profundity here makes me want to go devour his complete works. Many Eastern European writers, of the sort Roth so memorably championed in the 80s, appear here, giving memorable snapshots of the life of belles lettres during the last moments of Soviet-satellite communism. One dirty little shocker: Roth prints some correspondence with Mary McCarthy, ostensibly about Roth’s THE COUNTERLIFE, which emboldens her to vent some barely concealed but still quite visible anti-Semitism. I think he kept McCarthy’s unwitty letters in as a way of twitting her snobbish bigotry, and one has to say, Good on ya, kid.

[WaldenOgre · Rating 4 out of 5]

在我个人看来，菲利普·罗斯和六位作家的对谈，是全书中思想深度和可读性最高的部分，而其中又以与伊凡·克里玛的对谈水准最高。单这一部分的内容，就让本书颇值得一读了。

相比之下，对两位艺术家朋友的追忆文章，就显得非常一般。真实人物的速写，恐怕并不是菲利普·罗斯的长项。

最后，对于迄今还完全没读过索尔·贝娄的读者（比如我）而言，书末对索尔·贝娄的作品的那一组书评，想必就会显得完全无法理解了。与好坏无关，单纯是因为它们不是为还没读过原作的读者书写的，仅此而已。

[Irwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little charming books consisting a series of "dialogue" between Phillips Roth and several other writers. I decided not to read this cover to cover (will do when I have time), but to pick a dialogue randomly, starting of course from the one I had read, Primo Levi, and continued with the ones I had heard like Milan Kundera, Saul Bellow, etc.

Levi talked about his being an author as well as a chemist. Kundera formulated the term novel and what it was to be a novelist very well to me. If I could only take one thing from the book, it would be that paragraph of his.

Picked out some other writers unknown to me. The general theme in the book was about the identity struggle of the authors who happened to be Jewish, their dealing with the past and how those experiences manifest in their writing.

The edition I had looked a bit differently from the covers available here. The title "Shop Talk" was clearly shown with a rather colourful background. Getting glances while reading in the subway, I couldn't help thinking of the possibility that the spectators would think I was reading a chick-lit :-)

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting, very well written, short book of ten essays with nine famous authors and one famous artist. Roth and his fellow authors discuss what it is to be an author and comments are made on various books of the authors interviewed.

Roth converses with Primo Levi, Aharon Appelfeld, Ivan Klimt, Milan Kundera and Edna O’Brien. Roth and Isaac Singer talk about Bruno Schulz who they both greatly admire for Bruno’s very original writing style. Roth writes a response to Mary McCarthy’s comments on Roth’s novel, The Counterlife. Roth writes a short essay on the old Bernard Malamud that he spoke to shortly before Malamud’s death. Roth writes about his friendship with Philip Guston, the artist. This friendship happened after Roth decided to live away from New York after Roth become famous after the success of Portnoy’s Complaint. Guston, 20 years older than Roth had also decided to live in seclusion in the country in a place called Woodstock. The final essay is about Roth’s thoughts on the major novels of Saul Bellow.

I gained further insight into these authors and the artist. Being familiar with most of the authors certainly aided my appreciation of this book.

[Steph Mostav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eu só conhecia o lado romancista do Philip Roth e, mais uma vez, esse homem me surpreendeu porque é um crítico excelente. As entrevistas a respeito da vida e da obra desses dez escritores, assim como o restante do material, retém o máximo de conteúdo possível e isso só foi possível através das perguntas que só um escritor como Roth poderia fazer. Se é possível resumir um livro com tantas personalidades heterogêneas em um tema central, é com certeza a representatividade, a produção e a reflexão da condição judaica na literatura. Mesmo os autores não-judeus, como Kundera e O'Brien, acabam reforçando o tema ao tratar de seu exílio e afastamento da terra natal, temas familiares para as várias gerações de judeus que viveram durante o século XX na Europa e nos EUA. É bem o tipo de livro que também serve para aumentar a lista de leitura e ninguém melhor do que Roth para atiçar a curiosidade a respeito de algum autor (os textos sobre os livros do Saul Bellow me deixaram fascinada).

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The interview with Edna O'Brien is by far the best part in here, but my overall disappointment is that this book is not filled so much with conversations as with interviews, where Roth constructs paragraph-long questions (questions in the guise of diatribe at times), when I think I had a desire to read conversations, exchanges of ideas. And the follow-up pieces exclusively from Roth on different artists falls into the mode that I find unenjoyable from him--paint-spatters of literary name-dropping, reference upon reference upon reference that, frankly, makes him sound more like a (far more well-read and intelligent, mind you) Dennis Miller.

But read the Edna O'Brien interview. Marvelous stuff.

[Zelda Godsey-Kellogg · Rating 3 out of 5]

kind of a misnomer and didn’t have much to do w craft plus i haven’t read any bellow yet so the end was hard to get through. however, it was nice to see writers talk, rather than write (excluding Mary McCarthy), to each other :)

[Ali Nazifpour · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of extremely interesting interviews and articles. They deal with subjects like identity, tyranny, censorship, and Jewishness. A must-read.

[Chiara • _bookscorner · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ✨

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shop Talk is a collection of interviews conducted and essays written by Philip Roth with/about several of his contemporary writers. I wasn't expecting much out of this book, even as a Roth superfan, since it isn't fiction, but I was surprised by Roth's depth of knowledge about his interviewees. He asked questions that suggested a deep appreciation for and genuine curiosity about his subjects. I was a bit apprehensive to read this book at all since I was largely unfamiliar with Roth's subjects, aside from Malamud and Bellow, but as I read I found myself inspired to check out their work. It's evident that Roth is deeply protective of Jewish rights and had engrossed himself in literature about the Holocaust and other incidents of Jewish persecution. His interviews with Appelfeld and Levi were particularly interesting because of their experiences during the Holocaust. Roth seemed to truly understand the motivations behind their work and the technique and thought process involved behind writing stories as a Jewish victim of the Holocaust and was able to pull out meaningful ideas from his interviewees. I really valued learning about Appelfeld and his literary influences. Kafka emerges as an almost ubiquitous influence for the European writers Roth spoke with, and it was fascinating seeing how he affected some of the great minds in the book. Discussion about Bruno Schulz, a lesser-known Holocaust survivor/writer, was also enlightening. The discussion with Levi about how "work" (in a paint factory for Levi) and writing is connected, or with Klima about how politics and oppressive governments influence literature had my wheels turning as well. Roth's interviews impressed me by showing the intertwined nature of literature and so much outside of the words on the page: our cultural histories, political leadership in fractured countries, the languages we speak, the natural environment, romance, etc. So much is encompassed in these conversations, as Roth sees deeply within his subjects. O'Brien and Kundera also had interesting insights on their beliefs about writing and their writing process. He also shared details about his relationship with the charmingly stoic Malamud and you can see how his image of Malamud must have factored into his own fiction (e.g., within The Ghost Writer for example). Lastly, he reviews many of Bellow's novels, demonstrating a deep understanding of and respect for his work and their kinship. I was impressed by his analysis of Herzog and Augie March, while many of the other reviews were a bit too out-of-reach for me to really grasp (as has been typical of Bellow's fiction for me in the past). Overall, this was a really cool collection that inspired me to read a large swath of writers.

[Joy Cagil · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is such a treat when a great author talks to other authors about their calling or gives the readers his opinion on their works. Shop Talk by Philip Roth is such a book and I feel I am enriched because of the joy of reading it and my reading list’s new additions. Philip Roth accomplishes most of his give-and-take with the other authors through interviews, especially in the beginning parts. Then there is correspondence through letters and Roth’s personal views, and even the mention of Philip Guston, the painter and his daughter Musa.

The beginning sections particularly impressed me because the authors interviewed were Holocaust survivors and they were all such winners, such as Primo Levi, Aharon Appelfeld, Ivan Klima. One thing these authors have in common is they all were impressed to some degree by Kafka.

I also liked very much Roth’s conversations about Bruno Schultz with Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Then there were the sections on Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, and Milan Kundera, already esteemed authors for me. The two women authors, Edna O’Brien and Mary McCarthy, were given space in the book as well.

Most of these authors were physically separated from the lands they were born in, and the psychological rift this separation created was evident in the ways they answered Roth or talked about their art, which is highly personal most of the time. Any artist who can create under terrible hardships deserves a big applause, as most if not all these authors do.

As the result of reading this book, I hope Philip Roth keeps on writing, whatever it is he wishes to write, fiction or non-fiction; his work I am sure will always be memorable.

[Duchka Walraet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pour passer une excellente soirée en compagnie de Roth et ses collègues discutant le coup dans leur arrière- boutique . Ça parle littérature, jeunesse, vocation, dictature, Shoa. Tout en légèreté, humour et bienveillance.

J'ai particulièrement aimé les anecdotes de camp de Levi, Appelfeld expliquant son apprentissage laborieux du hébreu, Singer faisant un exposé sur les juifs assimilés et les juifs non-assimilés de Varsovie. L'expérience littéraire en Tchécoslovaquie sous la dictature de Klima et Kundera, portraits croisés, l'un est resté, et à choisi de développer une œuvre dans des circonstances tout aussi eprouvantes qu'exaltantes, l'autre s'est exilé pour pouvoir continuer à écrire et n'est jamais retourné.

[Maria Azpiroz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me encanta Roth así que compré este libro desprevenidamente. Resulta que son entrevistas realizadas a varios autores. La forma es pesada porque las preguntas de Roth son largas intervenciones que no siempre fluyen. La entrevista a Primo Levi que es la primera del libro me encantó pero dejó la vara muy alta para todo el resto que es sensiblemente inferior y más aburrido. Incluso autores judíos como Bellow que me gusta muchísimo, luce desabrido en el texto de Roth. El sarcasmo de Roth que me encanta, brilla por su ausencia aquí. Hay escaso humor incluso. No ayuda que no conozca varios de los autores mencionadas, muchos son autores que escriben en hebreo y han tenido escasa o nula traducción al inglés incluso. Un texto, que en lo personal me resultó olvidable.

[AndreasRaptis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Με τον Ροθ δεν την παλεύω ως συγγραφέα αλλά εδώ ανοίγει συζητήσεις με διάφορους συναδέλφους επί παντος (κυρίως όμως περι εβραικοτητας). Οι περισσοτερες έχουν γίνει μεταξυ 1975-1990 οποτε υπάρχουν ακόμα τείχη Βερολίνου και προβληματα όπως η επέλαση της τηλεόρασης (χαχαχα). Η αποκάλυψη είναι ο Ιβάν Κλίμα και η Εντνα Ο Μπράιαν, φοβερά άτομα, θες να ψάξεις τι γράψανε. Κατά τα λοιπά ο Κούντερα λέει συμπαθείς κουντεριές, ο Πρίμο Λέβι είναι όμορφα απλός ως εργαζόμενος χημικός και κατά τυχη συγγραφέας, ο Μάλαμουντ φαίνεται μυστηριώδης όπως και ο Μπελοου (θα σκαλιστουν οι περιπτώσεις τους). Τελος, ένα μεγάλο ρισπεκτ στο εκπληκτικό επιμετρο της μεταφράστριας - τέσσερις σελίδες συμπυκνωμένης γνώσης, ευφυΐας και στιλ.

[Michael Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ended much better than it started. At first I was a little perturbed by a couple of things I observed, including the subject of interviews and how “interviews” were conducted, but I reconciled with those issues as I read on. Oh what started out as a two star read, earn to be a three star read as I finished the book. As with everything Roth writes, he also commands a mastery of language in this book.

In mid 2017, I set out to read (or re-read) every book that Philip Roth has written. All but the last two I read in order of publication. This was the next to last book of Roth’s that I have to read. Portney’s Complaint is the final book on the list.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressions of Shop Talk. In my way of thinking, a book gets 5 stars only if it lights me on fire, intellectually, imaginatively, or if its prose alone manages to scorch my senses. Ulysses did that, all 800 pages. But how, then, could a book this small – only 160 pages – and a work of non-fiction, at that, set all 3 ablaze? The answer is Philip Roth. Read him and weep, though, if you're one of those cursed to call themselves a writer. Because, unless your name's Joyce or Bellow, or perhaps Didion, not one of us is ever going to be this fucking good.

[Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! It's an easy reading experience, given the length of the book, but it also contains a lot of very interesting ideas, statements, thoughts on racism, the world, politics as well as the writing itself. I found interviews in the book most appealing to me. They are the windows for me to get to know authors that I haven't read, or writers' opinions on some contemporary ideas that aren't even obsolete right now. This booklet is underrated for its value, and could get more attention.

Plus, this book focused very much on the topic of being a jew and the holocaust too.

[Φώτης Καραμπεσίνης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το να συνομιλήσεις με τους ομοτέχνους σου, δεν είναι εύκολη υπόθεση. Απαιτεί αφενός υψηλό βαθμό αυτοεκτίμησης για να αντιπαρατεθείς με εκείνους που δουλεύουν στην ίδια βάρδια με εσένα, κάτω από τον ίδιο ουρανό. Αφετέρου προϋποθέτει επαρκή γνώση του έργου τους και φυσικά περιέργεια, ενδιαφέρον για τα τεκταινόμενα στον χώρο.
Ενδιαφέρον έχει το γεγονός ότι εκείνος που παίρνει τις συνεντεύξεις είναι ο κορυφαίος συγγραφέας του μεταπολεμικού κόσμου. Σίγουρα η πιο ενδιαφέρουσα στιγμή είναι εκείνη με τον Κούντερα, όπως επίσης και τα κείμενα του Ροθ για τους Μπέλοου και Μάλαμουντ.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a series of interviews between writer Philip Roth and others. I have read the Primo Levi's , Edna O'Brien and the one with Aharon Appelfeld.
Honestly it's a very good book , only put 4 stars because I'm not so used to a book fully in interview style.
Also I dont think it's a book you have to read from start to finish so I feel good in not finishing this book since I read it by interviewee and not by order of appearance

[Magdalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in Polish and English (title in English: Shop Talk. A Writer and His Colleagues and Their Work). It was an undeniable pleasure to read these interviews that Philip Roth conducted with some of his fellow writers. Interviews might be an inadequate word for these penetrating encounters where the interlocutors embark on in-depth discussions about trivial as well as substantial themes. It felt great to be a privy to these conversations. Definitely recommended.