Philip Roth: literary giant turns 80

19 March 2013 - 02:25 By Andrew Donaldson
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Short, sharp guidance and observations from a journalist with attitude. All books available from Exclusives

IF YOU READ ONE BOOK THIS WEEK

'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk', by Ben Fountain (Canongate) R180

THE comparisons with Catch-22 are perhaps inevitable, and might even be this funny and profound novel's undoing, but this is not so much a satire of the war in Iraq as a savaging of the hypocrisy and stupidity of George W Bush's America.

THE ISSUE

Philip Roth is 80 today. Last month, New York Magazine surveyed 30 heavyweight writers and literary critics to assess Roth's career. Here are some highlights:

All except one thought he should win the Nobel prize, and 77% judged him America's greatest living novelist.

Voting on his best work: Sabbath's Theater (24%), The Counterlife (13%), American Pastoral, The Ghost Writer, Goodbye Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint (all 10%), The Plot Against America, Deception (both 7%), Patrimony, The Prague Orgy and The Human Stain (all 3%). Asked to identify Roth's "great subject" the New York survey revealed: Jewishness (14%), celebrity (7%), mortality (21%), sex (14%) and himself (43%).

Describing what he most liked about Roth, Charles Bock said: "That he's hilarious, that he upended the notion of the American Jew, that he's a lightning rod, that the Cro-Mag part of him enables so many furious exasperated and superb essays, and that he doesn't seem to give two sh*ts - all of it."

Asked what she disliked, Nell Freudenberger said: "I don't like the way he writes about women, and I don't like the way I sound complaining about it."

So, is he a misogynist? "Yes" (17%), "no" (30%), and "well .... " (52%). Final word to Roth. Last year, he announced his retirement and that 2010's Nemesis would be his last novel - a decision that came after re-reading all his books to see if he had wasted his time. His verdict? "I thought it was more or less a success."

Happy birthday, then.

CRASH COURSE

There will be much hubbub and excitement this time next year over the inaugural recipient of the Folio Prize. The new £40000 (about R558000) fiction award is set to go toe-to-toe with the Man Booker.

According to Andrew Kidd, co-founder of the award, it was felt the literary world needed "a 21st-century prize based on 21st-century parameters; a prize open to English language writers from anywhere in the world; a prize open to all forms of fiction, even forms of which we've scarcely yet conceived; and a prize that engages directly with those most invested in helping deserving books to find an audience: the writers themselves."

THE BOTTOM LINE

"I thought nothing of it. The ocean looked a little closer to our hotel than usual. That was all." - Wave: A Memoir of Life After the Tsunami, by Sonali Deraniyagala (Virago)

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