After retiring from writing novels in 2012, Philip Roth has felt "no desire to write fiction," he says in a new interview. Having taken up swimming, music, and appreciating nature, he has "barely time left for a continuing preoccupation with aging, writing, sex, and death." It's difficult to make room for all your…
Did Philip Roth's Real Hate Mail Become His Novel's Cover Art?
In March of this year, the literary biographer Blake Bailey paid a visit to Francine du Plessix Gray, a former New Yorker scribe living in western Connecticut. Bailey is at work on the official biography of Philip Roth, and he had a question about one of Roth's novels—specifically about the jacket art.
Philip Roth and Mia Farrow Watched Sharknado Together
Philip Roth and Mia Farrow didn't, actually, watch Sharknado together—the photo is from a dinner party a few weeks ago, and the now-deleted Tweet was a joke—but it's good to know that the shark-weather thriller penetrated Mia Farrow's consciousness.
Philip Roth Got Tons of Czech Tail in the 1970s
Last night was the PEN gala, when our nation's leading literary lights like emcee Willie Geist and featured co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin gathered beneath a giant fake blue whale in the Museum of Natural History and all Twittered at each other because they had one of those big Twitter screens that everyone puts up at big…
Your Betting Guide to the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced October 7 in Sweden. We've got your betting odds right here, fresh from international oddsmakers Ladbrokes. Now you can totally dominate your office Nobel Prize in Literature pool. (You have one, right?)
Philip Roth —
the author giving you the justification to just give up trying to read that copy of The Plot Against America that's been on your nightstand for the last two months, in an interview with The Daily Beast via The Guardian.
'The Ringtone of Choice Among Hip Literary Types This Summer'
This wailing ringtone featuring a horsey Philip Roth sample is still better than anything Moby came up with for New York magazine. Of course, the joke is that there are no "hip literary types." [Guardian]
Happy Birthday
Harvey Weinstein turns 57 today. Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff is turning 55. Glenn Close is 62. Bruce Willis is 54. Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder is turning 76. Times managing editor Jill Abramson is 55. Author Philip Roth turns 76. Financier Stephen Friedman is 71. Former Bond girl Ursula…
Times Misreports Death — In A Novel
(Disclaimer: Spoilers related to the Philip Roth novel Indignation ahead.) Oct. 2, Philip Roth will jump readers to the end of his new novel Indignation. On WNYC, the writer will explain how, if you read to the end of his book, you find that the narrator Marcus Messner is not, in fact, dead, but merely in the midst of…
Redemption?
Things are looking up for publisher Nan Talese: A couple of weeks after James Frey shifted more of the blame for the Million Little Pieces brouhaha onto her namesake imprint, Leon Neyfakh reports that authors including Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer may be joining her list, following their previous editor Janet…
Philip Roth: Not As Sexy On The Big Screen
You know that "Living Literary Legend" Philip Roth? He just turned 75. He wrote that thing about chicken liver. And he's still writing. His latest novel, Indignation, is coming out in September, far enough away that Roth hasn't even had his requisite fawning profile in the Times. But Scott Rudin has already bought up…
Studies About Happiness Fail to Make Us Happy
We humans are a fickle bunch. Take Eliot Spitzer: besides the receding hairline, the guy had everything going for him. And yet he threw it all away to make the career of some hot piece of Jersey trash. And we're always trying to figure out what makes us happy. There all always studies coming out about how religion…
Philip Roth: The New Perez Hilton?
In a recent interview in the European weekly Spiegel, legendary novelist Philip Roth sort of implies that he's into cybersex:
Philip Roth
One of America's most respected novelists, Roth has written more than 25 books including Portnoy's Complaint, American Pastoral, and The Plot Against America.
"New York Did What It Does To People"
"There's a great quote in the latest Philip Roth book (Exit Ghost)," Mayor Bloomberg announced during his State of the City Address. "'I came to New York,' the character says, 'and in only hours, New York did what it does to people — awakened the possibilities. Hope breaks out.'" But actually, as City Room points out,…
Philip Roth Firing Blanks, Says Youngster
Call us sentimental, but when you're reviewing the closing chapter in Pulitzer-winning American author Philip Roth's decades-long love affair with himself (aka Nathan Zuckerman), it's less than classy to suggest his literary climax has so failed you that the man ought to investigate erectile dysfunction drugs. Was…
Christopher Hitchens Gags On New Philip Roth Novel
Warmongering God-hater Christopher Hitchens takes a look at Philip Roth's Exit Ghost, the final chapter in the life of Roth's fictional altar-ego Nathan Zuckerman. He is unimpressed. Considering Roth's fondness for stories about blowjobs gone wrong, Hitch recalls a scene from The Dying Animal, in which a character,…
