There’s a new biography of Philip Roth. It has been reviewed both in The New Yorker and in the New York Review of Books and in both articles he's depicted as a difficult man (I’m watering that down). He was left in constant pain from an Army incident which may explain some of it, but certainly not all. I loved American Pastoral and The Human Stain, so I’m going to remember him for that.
At lunch with my friend Bonnie, I mentioned the Roth articles. “I met him!” “I interviewed him and wrote an article about him for The Reader. He was totally dislikable.” Here is Bonnie’s column:
https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/a-party-for-philip-roth/Content?oid=881554
You’re going to love reading this. Yes, it’s about Roth, but it is so much richer. Bonnie perfectly captures a time when booksellers were at the center of the cultural scene. When a major author appeared, everyone turned up. Think literature as a Hollywood premiere.
Great writers deserve the red carpet.
We tend to feel quite personal and even possessive of those "great" artists we admire. Turns out they are real people, with all the flaws randomly distributed to humankind; often a few more. That they are great artists doesn't make them outstanding souls. We ought not to expect them to be, but most of us do, at least when we are young. The "halo" is of our making and sometimes gets placed over real scoundrels. For us, the trick is to recognize our own flaws and allow ourselves the pleasure of the art they create. It's a tough job.
ReplyDelete