Shostak demonstrates that for Roth no perspective gains ascendancy over another, nor does he work the various viewpoints toward a synthesis. Instead, his countertexts simply "talk" to one another. For this reason Shostak does not treat Roth's canon chronologically but pursues a complex thematic investigation of the concerns that preoccupy Roth: masculinity, embodiment, male sexuality, Jewish American identity, the pressures of recent American history on the self, and storytelling as an act of both fictive imagination and quasi-autobiographical disclosure. She arranges the study to enable the reader to understand how the individual fictions and memoirs intersect and cohere and where they depart from and disrupt one another.
In addition to offering fresh, informed readings of Roth's work, Shostak provides new insights from the virtually untapped archives of the Philip Roth Collection at the Library of Congress.
