Author of more than 25 books, Roth was a fierce satirist and uncompromising realist, confronting readers in a bold, direct style that scorned false sentiment or hopes for heavenly reward. He identified himself as an American writer, not a Jewish one, but for Roth the American experience and the Jewish experience were often the same. A panel moderator berated him for his comic portrayals of Jews, asking Roth if he would have written the same books in Nazi Germany. Roth would remember hailing a taxi and, seeing that the driver’s last name was Portnoy, commiserating over the book’s notoriety. In “The Anatomy Lesson,” “The Counterlife” and other novels, the featured character is a Jewish writer from New Jersey named Nathan Zuckerman.

Source: National Post May 23, 2018 04:01 UTC