Chiacchiere di bottega

by Philip Roth, Norman Gobetti (Translator)

Overview

Queste conversazioni, appunti di lettura, ricordi e lettere nascono da occasioni diverse, ma da un'unica voglia di capire. Mosso dall'ammirazione, dalla solidarietà, dalla simpatia, Roth viaggia per l'Europa, gli Stati Uniti e Israele, e incontra scrittori che hanno sollecitato in lui la necessità di «chiacchierare» del proprio e dell'altrui lavoro. A Torino incontra Primo Levi, con cui parla di Olocausto, precisione scientifica ed etica del lavoro ben fatto. A Londra e nel Connecticut affronta con Milan Kundera il tema del totalitarismo, ma anche del destino del romanzo. E poi viaggia fino a Praga per incontrare Ivan Klima, a Londra parla con Edna O'Brien del suo «esilio volontario» dall'Irlanda, a Gerusalemme conversa con un altro sopravvissuto, Aharon Appelfeld, di ebraismo e assimilazione. Occorre dire che la curiosità sfoggiata da Philip Roth in queste pagine non è moneta corrente tra gli scrittori. Raccontando dell'amicizia con Bernard Malamud, per esempio, Roth cita una regola di cortesia non scritta tra i romanzieri che «prende atto di quanta poca sincerità si sarebbe in grado di sopportare dall'altro». Eppure, con alcuni di loro, Roth è pronto a lasciare il centro della scena e a trasformarsi in appassionato intervistatore. E poi ringrazia Mary McCarthy di essere stata «sgradevole», di non avergli taciuto le critiche per il suo ultimo romanzo.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788858426623
Publisher:	EINAUDI
Publication date:	07/25/2017
Sold by:	GIULIO EINAUDI EDITORE - EBKS
Format:	eBook
File size:	488 KB
Language:	Italian

About the Author

Philip Roth's long and celebrated career has been something of a thorn in the side of the writer. As it is for so many, fame has been the proverbial double-edged sword, bringing his trenchant tragic-comedies to a wide audience, but also making him a prisoner of expectations and perceptions. Still, since 1959, Roth has forged along, crafting gorgeous variations of the Great American Novel and producing, in addition, an autobiography (The Facts) and a non-fictional account of his father's death (Patrimony: A True Story).

Roth's novels have been oft characterized as "Jewish literature," a stifling distinction that irks Roth to no end. Having grown up in a Jewish household in a lower-middle-class sub-section of Newark, New Jersey, he is incessantly being asked where his seemingly autobiographical characters end and the author begins, another irritant for Roth. He approaches interviewers with an unsettling combination of stoicism, defensiveness, and black wit, qualities that are reflected in his work. For such a high-profile writer, Roth remains enigmatic, seeming to have laid his life out plainly in his writing, but refusing to specify who the real Philip Roth is.

Roth's debut Goodbye, Columbus instantly established him as a significant writer. This National Book Award winner was a curious compendium of a novella that explored class conflict and romantic relationships and five short stories. Here, fully formed in Roth's first outing, was his signature wit, his unflinching insightfulness, and his uncanny ability to satirize his character's situations while also presenting them with humanity. The only missing element of his early work was the outrageousness he would not begin to cultivate until his third full-length novel Portnoy's Complaint -- an unquestionably daring and funny post-sexual revolution comedy that tipped Roth over the line from critically acclaimed writer to literary celebrity.

Even as Roth's personal relationships and his relationship to writing were severely shaken following the success of Portnoy's Complaint, he continued publishing outrageous novels in the vein of his commercial breakthrough. There was Our Gang, a parodic attack on the Nixon administration, and The Breast, a truly bizarre take on Kafka's Metamorphosis, and My Life as a Man, the pivotal novel that introduced Roth's literary alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman.

Zuckerman would soon be the subject of his very own series, which followed the writer's journey from aspiring young artist with lofty goals to a bestselling author, constantly bombarded by idiotic questions, to a man whose most important relationships have all but crumbled in the wake of his success. The Zuckerman Trilogy (The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound, and The Counterlife) directly paralls Roth's career and unfolds with aching poignancy and unforgiving humor.

Zuckerman would later reemerge in another trilogy, although this time he would largely be relegated to the role of narrator. Roth's American Trilogy (I Married a Communist, the PEN/Faulkner Award winning The Human Stain, and The Plot Against America), shifts the focus to key moments in the history of late-20th ¿century American history.

In Everyman (2006) , Roth reaches further back into history. Taking its name from a line of 15th-century English allegorical plays, Everyman is classic Roth -- funny, tragic, and above all else, human. It is also yet another in a seemingly unbreakable line of critical favorites, praised by Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and The Library Journal.

In 2007's highly anticipated Exit Ghost, Roth returned Nathan Zuckerman to his native Manhattan for one final adventure, thus bringing to a rueful, satisfying conclusion one of the most acclaimed literary series of our day. While this may (or may not) be Zuckerman's swan song, it seems unlikely that we have seen the last Philip Roth. Long may he roar.

Hometown:

Connecticut

Date of Birth:

March 19, 1933

Place of Birth:

Newark, New Jersey

Education:

B.A. in English, Bucknell University, 1954; M.A. in English, University of Chicago, 1955