Philip Roth... is awesome. discussion

Philip Roth has stopped writing novels. Having read all of the novels he’s written I’m sad that I’ll never read another one for the first time so the next best thing is reading them again. I invite you all to join me in reading a selection of these novels throughout 2013: The Year of Roth.

In order to keep the reading list manageable I’ve culled the complete bibliography, cutting off both ends (including all the late short books) and removing a few others. As much as some folks love The Great American Novel it’s unquestionably minor Roth and I could do without reading it again. I’ve omitted The Plot Against America because it’s long and a downer to have to end on. Feel free to pick it up on 1/1/2014.

Following is a list of included books with start dates:

Portnoy s Complaint - Jan 1
The Breast - Jan 28
My Life as a Man - Feb 4
The Professor of Desire - Mar 1
The Ghost Writer - Mar 25
Zuckerman Unbound - Apr 3
The Anatomy Lesson - Apr 24
The Prague Orgy - May 19
The Counterlife - May 27
Deception - Jun 24
Operation Shylock - Jul 15
Sabbath s Theater - Aug 19
American Pastoral - Sep 23
I Married a Communist - Nov 1
The Human Stain - Dec 1

I used Amazon’s page count for the books (yes they’re all available in Kindle format) to arrive at a list that would require about 85 pages a week of reading. Keep in mind that Kindle pages are shorter than those in most print editions. My main worry is that the time allotted for reading some books may be too long but I guess that will just give us more time to discuss.

I hope we’ll find time to talk about the books as we go. Most of all I just like the idea of some other people sharing in the experience of reading these great books at the same time. My experience of Infinite Summer – a group read of Inifinite Jest a couple of years ago – was that having a community reading along made it more fun than picking up such a big work on my own. I hope that having a few people along for the ride of Year of Roth will make reading all these books even more enjoyable than the last time I read them separately.

If you know of anybody else that might be interested in this, please spread the word.

I won't necessarily be able to do them all, but I will try to do some!

This is a brilliant idea! I'll try my best to start with The Breast which I haven't read since I was about 16-17 years old. Had a marked impact on me then ;)

I just found this thread and would like to participate. I'm not in sync with you now--I'm a little ways into The Professor of Desire, one of a small number of PR's books I've never read--but I'll pick up whatever book is under way when I finish it.

Welcome Tom! I've allowed more time than necessary for the first three Zuckerman books since they're all pretty short. You should be caught up soon. How are you liking the books so far?

Thanks, Ben. I'm a big fan of Roth's, been reading him pretty avidly for 30 years. Now that he's apparently done, I'm going back for the few I've missed. As I say, I'm on The Professor of Desire now. Just recently read and enjoyed Nemesis. I'll certainly join you for The Prague Orgy. Never caught that one.

I've read all of Roth before but I'm really enjoying rereading them all in order. I'm getting a different appreciation of the body of work as a whole this way and highly recommend tagging along for the full ride if you've got the time.

Ben: I think I will jump into Prometheus Unbound, the book you have on the docket now, once I finish The P of D (in a day or two, I suspect). I'm pretty sure I'll stick through The Anatomy Lesson and The Prague Orgy, and then we'll see. I haven't read Deception and would very much like to reread The Counterlife, one of his very best IMHO. Operation Shylock is one I missed and I'm really anxious to get to that one (don't know if I'll be able to wait until July).

Tom, I'm with you on The Counterlife, one of my favorites too and a breakthrough for Roth in terms of widening his subject matter. Shylock is a book I keep coming back to - so funny, fast paced and meaningful - I can understand not waiting to get to it. Whatever tack you take I'll be interested to hear whether reading several novels together has added to your appreciation of them.