Episode · The Book Review · 2024-07-18
Books mentioned on Blake Bailey on Writing His Life of Philip Roth
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Leaving a Doll's House
Discussed“he was very wounded by Clare Bloom's Memoir leaving a doll's house which portrayed him in an extremely negative light”
Where to get it
-
Portnoy's Complaint
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth is a provocative, comedic psychological novel structured as a long monologue by a tormented Jewish bachelor confessing his sexual anxieties and familial pressures to his psychoanalyst.
Discussed“Philip always said I wish I'd never published por noise complaint because Ever After People thought I was this unserious jerk off artist”
Where to get it
-
Goodbye, Columbus
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth is a celebrated early collection of fiction exploring the lives and internal cultural fractures of American Jews.
Discussed“goodbye Columbus sprung from the head of Zeus when he was 25 and won him the national book award at age 26”
Where to get it
-
Letting go
Letting Go is the first full-length novel by Philip Roth, exploring the complicated romantic, academic, and professional entanglements of young intellectuals in the American Midwest and New York during the nineteen-fifties.
Critiqued“and he wrote letting go and letting go is insufferable except for those set pieces where he's being funny”
Where to get it
-
When she was good
When She Was Good is a compelling novel by Philip Roth that explores complex themes of morality, familial duty, and personal disillusionment in mid-century America.
Discussed“and then he tried to be like Flo bear and he wrote when she was good and he found himself again”
Where to get it
-
Sabbath's Theater
Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth is a provocative and darkly humorous novel centered on a aging, disgraced puppeteer grappling with grief, mortality, and his own destructive impulses.
Discussed“what did he think was his best work oh Sabbath theater hand down which which I I don't agree with by the way”
Where to get it
-
The Ghost Writer
The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth is a celebrated novel that follows a young aspiring writer visiting an older, established author, serving as the first book in the author's famous Zuckerman sequence.
Recommended“I love the ghost riter which is the first Suman novel”
Where to get it
-
Profiles in courage
Profiles in Courage by John F.
Discussed“they have wangled the quote youthful senator from Massachusetts John F Kennedy who had just published mere weeks before profiles ENC courage”
Where to get it
-
Master of the Senate
Master of the Senate by Robert A.
Discussed“there's this anecdote that that really struck me in master of the Senate”
Where to get it
-
Orientalism
Orientalism by Edward W.
Discussed“Timothy Brennan who teaches in the humanities department at the University of of Minnesota has written a biography of Edward SED the great public intellectual the author of orientalism which as you know is his foundational work of postcolonial studies”
Where to get it
-
Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret
Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown is an unconventional, kaleidoscopic biography that shatters traditional biographical norms to portray the rebellious and often tragic royal.
Discussed“well there was of course that that Craig Brown oh yeah 99 glimpses of Princess Margaret which I I I love just for that idea for the structure”
Where to get it
-
The world is what it is
The World Is What It Is by Patrick French is an acclaimed, exhaustively researched 2008 biography of the Nobel laureate writer V.S.
Recommended“I think you must have reviewed this was was the great biography of naul is it the world is what it is by Patrick French”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (5) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“I had just finished my third biography about Charles Jackson who wrote The Lost weekend”
“and he wrote when she was good and he found himself again with with por Noy's complaint”
“William gas wrote a um very costic review of what was it the Great American novel and Ever After”
“we have not really talked much more about CLA Bloom's 1996 Memoir you mentioned it leaving a doll's house”
“Kennedy told her gossip columnist he was fond of Churchill's Marboro and Cecil's the young Melbourne”