 First edition cover | |
| Author | Philip Roth |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | 1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 225 |
| ISBN | 0-374-29945-5 |
| OCLC | 7307132 |
| Preceded by | The Ghost Writer |
| Followed by | The Anatomy Lesson |
Zuckerman Unbound is a 1981 novel by the American author Philip Roth.
The novel resumes the story of Roth's fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman that was inaugurated by Roth's previous novel The Ghost Writer .
Like much of Roth's fiction, Zuckerman Unbound confronts the tenuous relationship between an author and his creations.
The novel—through its supporting cast—explores the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, which also form the basis for Robert Redford's 1994 drama Quiz Show . [1] In Roth's novel, Herb Stempel and Charles Van Doren—played in the Redford film by, respectively, John Turturro and Ralph Fiennes—are called Alvin Pepler and Hewlett Lincoln.
The novel parallels several real events in Roth's life, including the publication of his 1969 novel Portnoy's Complaint and the hoopla which surrounded Roth in the wake of that novel's fame. By analogy, in Zuckerman Unbound, Zuckerman has achieved meteoric acclaim and notoriety with Carnovsky, a coming-of-age sex romp that differs remarkably from Zuckerman's previously Jamesian fiction. The extent to which the details of the Zuckerman character can be safely compared to those of Roth has been a subject of zealous debate among Roth's readers. Roth himself has weighed in on the debate, both in interviews and within his fiction.
The first and last books in the initial Zuckerman trilogy are 1979's The Ghost Writer and 1983's The Anatomy Lesson . The three were collected and republished in 1985 as Zuckerman Bound .
Critic John Lahr, in New York Magazine , called the novel "fascinating." [2] In The New Yorker , John Updike remarked, "Always one of the most intelligent and energetic of American writers, he has now become one of the most scrupulous." [3] In Time , R. Z. Sheppard praised Roth's "comic genius." [4] In The New York Times Book Review , [5] critic Harold Bloom said of the three collected Zuckerman novels, "Zuckerman Bound merits something reasonably close to the highest level of esthetic praise for tragicomedy."
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career.
The Human Stain is a novel by Philip Roth, published May 5, 2000. The book is set in Western Massachusetts in the late 1990s. It is narrated by 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, who appears in several earlier Roth novels, and who also figures in both American Pastoral (1997) and I Married a Communist (1998), two books that form a loose trilogy with The Human Stain. Zuckerman acts largely as an observer as the complex story of the protagonist, Coleman Silk, a retired professor of classics, is slowly revealed.
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical mystery-drama film directed and produced by Robert Redford. Dramatizing the Twenty-One quiz show scandals of the 1950s, the screenplay by Paul Attanasio adapts the memoirs of Richard N. Goodwin, a U.S. Congressional lawyer who investigated the accusations of game-fixing by show producers. The film chronicles the rise and fall of popular contestant Charles Van Doren after the fixed loss of Herb Stempel and Goodwin's subsequent probe.
Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short story writer.
Nathan Zuckerman is a fictional character created by the writer Philip Roth, who uses him as his protagonist and narrator, a type of alter ego, in many of his novels.
The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the shows’ outcomes while still attempting to deceive the public into believing that these shows were objective and fair competitions. Producers fixed the shows sometimes with the free consent of contestants and out of various motives: improving ratings, greed, and the lack of regulations prohibiting such conspiracy in game show productions.
Operation Shylock: A Confession is a 1993 novel by American novelist Philip Roth.
Charles Lincoln Van Doren was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the U.S. Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One. Terminated by NBC, he joined Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. in 1959, becoming a vice-president and writing and editing many books before retiring in 1982.
American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle class life is ruined by the domestic social and political turmoil of the 1960s during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, which in the novel is described as a manifestation of the "indigenous American berserk".
Herbert Milton Stempel was an American television game show contestant and subsequent whistleblower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the 1950s quiz show scandals. His rigged six-week appearance as a winning contestant on the 1950s show Twenty-One ended in an equally rigged defeat by Columbia University teacher and literary scion Charles Van Doren.
Zuckerman Bound is a trilogy of novels by Philip Roth, originally published in 1985.
Literary fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre ; or, otherwise, refers to novels that are character-driven rather than plot-driven, examine the human condition, use language in an experimental or poetic fashion, or are simply considered "serious" art.
The Ghost Writer is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his Zuckerman Bound trilogy. The novel touches on themes common to many Roth works, including identity, the responsibilities of authors to their subjects, and the condition of Jews in America. Parts of the novel are a reprise of The Diary of Anne Frank.
I Married a Communist is a Philip Roth novel concerning the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, known as "Iron Rinn." The story is narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, and is one of a trio of Zuckerman novels Roth wrote in the 1990s depicting the postwar history of Newark, New Jersey and its residents.
Henry Roth was an American novelist and short story writer who found success later in life after his 1934 novel Call It Sleep was reissued in paperback in 1964.
Boston Review is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form is a "forum", featuring a lead essay and several responses. Boston Review also publishes an imprint of books with MIT Press.
The Anatomy Lesson is a 1983 novel by American author Philip Roth. It is the third novel from Roth to feature Nathan Zuckerman as the main character.
Exit Ghost is a 2007 novel by Philip Roth. It is the ninth, and last, novel featuring Nathan Zuckerman.
This is a bibliography of works by and about Philip Roth.
Albert Freedman was an American television producer who was involved with the 1950s quiz show scandals. He became a central figure in the cheating scandals and was the first person indicted. He was arrested for perjury after lying about giving contestants questions, and then recanted his grand jury testimony which led to the arrests of 14 former contestants. After the quiz show investigations concluded Freedman moved to London to work in pornography publications.
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