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Has anyone read The Plot Against America yet? My English professor just assigned us two consecutive Roth books, Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral. I love the guy. The energy! The Franticness! What do you all think?

Generic wrote:Has anyone read The Plot Against America yet? My English professor just assigned us two consecutive Roth books, Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral. I love the guy. The energy! The Franticness! What do you all think?

Read Portnoys Complaint years ago - very funny book - haven't eaten veal since. Also read The Breast - very strange book.

I also recall starting to read Goodbye Columbus, but lost interest halfway through. Portnoy and Columbus I'm guessing were based to some extent on Roth's own adolesence, and there was a lot of American/Jewish stuff in there - a culture which was very foreign to me, and hence I really couldn't get into it a lot. I sort of got the impression that his writing, while good enough to entertain a general audience (Portnoy especially), he was really aiming at a smaller sub-set of society and I wasn't really getting it.

As I said, that conclusion came from reading 2 and a half books - let me know if I'm wrong and recommend one of his later works for me - I'd be happy to give him another go.

No, you're about right, I think. Though I had theorized that you didn't have to come from the same background to appreciate the way Roth tells it. I mean, yes, I'm Jewish, but my Mom wasn't nearly as bad as Sophie Portnoy, and I'm not from a Jewish neighborhood nor a Jewish school, and I could still appreciate most of the humor. I'm fairly certain it varies fromm book to book, but my idea of it is that because Philip Roth is telling you about his life, you don't need to already know what it's like. I could be off the mark.

I recommend you read the short story "The Conversion of the Jews," if you can find it. It's about ten pages long, and really dumbfounding.