I was fairly close to the late Philip Roth from 1985, when I reviewed Zuckerman Bound, the trilogy of The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound, The Anatomy Lesson, and the epilogue The Prague Orgy in The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Philip phoned me and said: “You have made me respectable again.” He then invited me to dine with him and Claire Bloom, then happily married to him, at his house in Cornwall, Connecticut. My wife was busy, so I went there with a good friend who had once been my student. Until about 2005, I saw Philip at regular intervals mostly in New York City. I recall being rather upset when he and Claire parted, and I remain very fond of Claire. During those two decades, Philip sent me manuscripts and then proof copies of each novel in turn. I remember reviewing Operation Shylock in 1993 in The New York Review of Books. Everyman (2006) I think I recall reviewing in what may have been The London Review of Books.
But after 2006, I rarely saw or heard from Philip in the last quarter of his life. We phoned one another occasionally, usually to exchange unhappy reports about the dubious state of our healths. I do not believe that Philip and I were ever really friends. We were too different. I appreciated his bitter humor and he sometimes expressed gratitude to me. I am sad he is gone.
I have not reread Philip for several years now. What holds on in my memory are two novels: American Pastoral (1997) and Sabbath’s Theater (1995). I’m not certain that I will reread either but I could probably recite a fair amount of Sabbath’s Theater, which I consider Philip’s masterpiece. Canonical judgments are always disputable, and I am weary of dispute. At 88, it is so much wasted time. But I think those two novels may well be permanent.
June 2018
Photo credit: Bob Peterson, Time Life Pictures, Getty Images