01.27.08
The Ghost Writer
—4.5—
Philip Roth’s famous Nathan Zuckerman series begins with The Ghost Writer. It introduces us to Zuckerman in his early twenties, after minor success with a few short stories, hoping to become a major force in literature. A story about his family has put him at odds with them, and so he goes to discuss his work with a recluse writer he is enraptured with. The night becomes quite a fiasco, in that emotions run high, and Zuckerman falls in love with a woman who may be a famous historical (and supposedly dead) writer. This book is severly uncomfortable at times, and I have to admit that a great deal was probably over my head. But I really enjoyed it. It was a discussion of literature as art, and what makes it such, and the types of people who write great things but live the mundane. It is not a book with an expansive plot, but more a character study of several very different, and difficult, people. I am very excited to read the next Zuckerman novel, and see where life takes him.
4.5/5
Charley said,
March 31, 2008 at 10:11 am
Hmm, this sounds interesting. I just read Portnoy’s Complaint, and I can’t say it made me a particular fan of Roth’s, but he certainly is a unique writer, and I wouldn’t mind reading him again in the future.