Reading Myself and Others

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Reading Myself and Others

Reading Myself - Roth.jpg

Reading Myself and Others first edition cover
Author Philip Roth
Language English
Subject Literature, writing
Genre Non-fiction anthology
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date
 January 1, 1975
Media type Print
Pages 270 pp (1st ed.)
ISBN 0-374-24753-6

Reading Myself and Others (1975) is an anthology of essays, interviews and criticism by the author Philip Roth. The first half of the book is built mainly upon Roth's assessment of his own published works at the time of the anthology's publication. The second half of the volume consists of essays and introductions by Roth about other authors. Many of the essays were occasioned by the abrupt fame and scrutiny[ citation needed ] which came to Roth upon the publication of his storm-provoking fourth novel, Portnoy's Complaint (1969). [1] In the "Author's Note", Roth writes that the selections in the book "are largely the by-products of getting started as a novelist, and then of taking stock." [2]

Philip Roth American novelist

Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short-story writer.

<i>Portnoys Complaint</i> book by Philip Roth

Portnoy's Complaint is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation using various props including a piece of liver. The novel tells the humorous monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language." Many of its characteristics went on to become Roth trademarks.

Reading Myself includes interviews of Roth conducted by other authors as well as several essays in which Roth attempts to answer some of the critics of his early works. Among the interviews, one was conducted by the author Joyce Carol Oates about Roth's novel The Breast (1972). Appropriate to the book's title, Roth even conducts a self-interview about the origins and intentions of his work. Reading Myself also includes a letter that Roth wrote, but never sent, to the literary critic Diana Trilling in response to her dismissive review of Portnoy's Complaint; [3] Trilling found Portnoy "lacking", but Roth found Trilling's reasoning as lacking too. [4] [5]

Joyce Carol Oates American author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1962 and has since published 58 novels, as well as a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize (2019). Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), Blonde (2000), and short story collections, The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

<i>The Breast</i> novel by Philip Roth

The Breast (1972) is a novella by Philip Roth, in which the protagonist, David Kepesh, becomes a 155-pound breast. Throughout the book Kepesh fights with himself. Part of him wishes to give in to bodily desires, while the other part of him wants to be rational. Kepesh, a literature professor, compares his plight with that of fictional characters such as Gregor Samsa in Kafka's short story The Metamorphosis and Kovalyov in Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Nose". Throughout the novel, he describes the various sexual and physical feelings he has while people handle him, while initiating sex with his girlfriend, and while he is alone.

Diana Trilling was an American literary critic and author, one of the New York Intellectuals.

Notes

  1. ↑ Brauner (2005), p.47
  2. ↑ Roth, Philip (1975). Reading Myself and Others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN   0-374-24753-6.
  3. ↑ Roth's letter to Trilling, dated July 27, 1969, was also published in literary magazine Five Dials , in Number 9: The Fiction Issue , as An Interruption: Writer vs Critic #4, pp.34-6
  4. ↑ Diana Trilling (1969) The uncomplaining homosexuals , Harper's Magazine, August 1969
  5. ↑ Wyatt Mason (2008) Weekend Read: Roth’s (Justified) Complaint, or “Document Dated July 27, 1969” , Harper's Magazine, June 2008

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