He could have rested on his laurels in any of the last six decades, gone off the grid like Salinger, or found a nice sinecure at a writers’ workshop. With 31 books in 51 years – from Goodbye Columbus (1959) to Nemesis (2010), Roth cranked out copy like Danielle Steele, James Patterson, or Stephen King, not like a precious literary genius. I hope these inspire fans to revisit his books, detractors to give him another try, and newcomers to read him for the first time.ġ. As a tribute, I offer the following 10 key ideas I gleaned from Roth’s work and career. At the top of their fields and now in their twilight years, both come across as men who vacillate between narcissism and humility, perfectionists for whom life is work and work is life. In this way, he reminds me of the 85-year-old Japanese master chef portrayed in the recent documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
The more I read, the more I appreciated how Roth writes not only with technical virtuosity and aesthetic mastery, but also with profound spiritual intent. This year, I read 15 Roth novels in a row, the literary equivalent of binge-watching multiple seasons of a serial television drama. Before 2012, I had read perhaps 10 of Roth’s books in a decade. By chance, the news came near the end of a year during which my attitude toward Roth changed from appreciation to obsession. Like many people, I was saddened when it was publicized that Philip Roth had quietly announced his retirement in an interview with a French magazine.
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