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Philip Roth: Novels and Other Narratives 1986-1991 / The Counterlife / The Facts / Deception / Patrimony (Library of America #185)

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Library of America's Philip Roth: Novels and Other Narratives 1986-1991 collects two novels -- The Counterlife and Deception -- and two nonfictionish books -- The Facts and Patrimony. Roth's earliest work in books like Goodbye, Columbus and Letting Go showcase a gifted apprentice writer grappling with his masters, as far as I can tell mostly Henry James. His first big commercial success is Portnoy's Complaint, in which he abandons clockwork prose for rip-roaring dramatic monologue. To my taste, the books that immediately follow Portnoy -- Our Gang, The Breast, and The Great American Novel -- show a writer with sufficient power to do whatever he wants in the act of squandering his time and talent on farcical stuff that doesn't add up to much. But then something happens. Roth pens Zuckerman Unbound, a trilogy and epilogue of metafictional novels featuring Roth doppelganger Nathan Zuckerman. Roth is still not afraid to transgress, but now it's to more serious ends, and the work still holds up today. Novels and Other Narratives 1986-1991 represents the period immediately following Zuckerman Unbound. Here we see the beginning of Roth's transformation from literary provocateur to literary master in The Counterlife, and from aging adolescent to grownup in the nonfiction narratives, particularly in Patrimony, which is a forthright wrestling with his father's death. These books prefigure Roth's greatest achievement, the run of Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, and The Human Stain, the first two of which might likely be the most accomplished works of fiction of the century's last twenty-five years. Reading them together and in order for the first time, in addition to being a deeply pleasurable experience, has been an education in how a good writer teaches himself, mid-career and book-by-book, to become a great writer.

Philip Roth emerged as one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century and a man whose talents were to stretch the boundaries of western literature and bring new life into American fiction. Capably edited by Ross Miller (Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Connecticut), "Philip Roth: Novels and Other Narratives 1986-1991" is the fifth and latest volume in the outstanding Library of America series showcasing the work of this American literary giant. These writings are taking from the author's mid-career and include 'The Counterlife', a ground-breaking novel which was published in 1986; 'The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography' published in 1988 and represents Roth's professional memoir; 'Deception', a candid noel of adultery published in 1990; and 'Patrimony: A True Story' which, published in 1991, received the National Book Critics Circle Award and is the story of the author observing his 86-year-old father Herman Roth unrelenting struggle against a fatal brain tumor. Published on acid-free paper, "Philip Roth: Novels and Other Narratives 1986-1991" is a critically essential addition to academic and community library American Literature reference collections and 20th Century American Literature supplemental student reading lists.

This 5th volume of the Library of America's collected works of Philip Roth brings together some of Roth's most fascinating views on what it really means to be a writer, a son, and a famous man in contemporary America. Building on the earlier Zuckerman voice and narrative style, but in no way using them as a crutch, these four books are splendid, and in retrospect, they truly foreshadow the "GD of Letters" that Roth has become these last two decades.