Philip Roth

Gabe Wallach is an intellectual, who has fallen in love with Libby, the wife of a friend, Paul Herz; Libby has converted to Judaism in order to be accepted by Paul�s family. Only a kiss is exchanged, but this is enough to tie Gabe to their fate. Gabe is also consumed with anger about his father�s decision to remarry Fay. Gabe himself ends up by going to live with Martha Reganhart, a woman of common origin, who has already had two children and is also being courted by the lawyer Sid Jaffe, who is helping her with her divorce. Gabe is thus involved, almost mechanically, in the two women�s misfortunes: Libby can�t have children and her neurosis is destroying her marriage whereas Martha has to look after two children, one of whom, Cynthiais, kills her little brother by causing him to fall from bed. And Paul must come to terms with his relationship with his father who one day has a heart attack: Paul hasn�t enough courage to go and see him before he dies. Gabe fnds a woman, Theresa Haug, who is pregnant but does not want the baby and so convinces her to give it to Libby. Theresa accepts and is assisted when she goes into labour, but then things become complicated because she runs away before baby Rachel�s adoption becomes official. Unfortunately, in the meantime, Libby learns to love Rachel and Gabe has no other choice but to go after Theresa so that Libby will not lose the child. While all this is going on Martha has chosen Jaffe who, she feels, she can rely on more. Gabe finds himself alone and directs all his attention and energy to helping the Herz. This world of weak intellectuals clashes with the world of the fiercer common people when Gabe has to face Theresa�s husband. He refuses to sign the documents which would free him from any kind of responsibility as regards the baby, not only because he does not trust lawyers but also because he realizes that he can extort money from Gabe. Having lived all his life in debt, Harry Bigoness has no pity for Gabe, who he simply sees as a lucky fellow used to getting everything he wants. After an series of heated arguments and negotiations Gabe manages to get Bigoness�s consent (the first time in his life that that he agrees to run a risk is when he brings back Rachel). But he still thinks of himself as a failure who has to atone for a sin, even if it is not clear what exactly it is.

1. Word "S Mitty" Smith is the baseball reporter who has writtten the book we are about to read. At the beginning of the second world war the baseball Patriot League is managed by General Oakhart, a fervent patriot and a very ambitious man. The Ruppert Mundys of Ulysses Fairsmith, a religious fanatic, is part of this league. The group has no base because the government has requisitioned their baseball pitch/field. Gil Gamesh is the most famous player, but he has an insufferable character which causes the referee, Mike "the Mouth" Masterson to fly into rages. Galmesh thinks he is immortal and unbeatable whereas Masterson has decided to make him respect the rules like everybody else. Gamesh hurls the ball at Masterson and nearly kills him. The general has no other choice but to expel him forever from baseball.
2. In the second chapter the Ruppert Mundys team members are introduced one by one. This is perhaps the most boring chapter in the whole of American fiction. Among the players Roland Agni stands out.
3. The third chapter describes some of the mishaps met by the players (in theory comic).
4. Frank Mazuma, the owner of another baseball team takes engages a dwarf, Bob Yamm, who becomes a star. His fame is soon threatened by another dwarf, OK Ockatur, who becomes his mortal enemy.The Ruppert Mundys buy Ockatur. And it is actually a ball hurled by Ockatur which hits Yamm and blinds him. (All these events are narrated as if they were funny).
5. The owner of one of the baseball teams, Angela Trust, who has been the lover of all the great baseball players, obsessed by the idea that an tnternal conspiracy is taking place against the Patriot League, summons the new champion Roland Agni and reveals to him that she had discovered him before any of the others, but that she does not want him in her team in order not to help the communists.
6. Isaac Ellis, an enfant prodige of the scientific world, transforms the Ruppert Mundys into an unbeatable team thanks to some biscuits containing drugs. The honest and naive Roland Agni is the only one to know the secret.. The plan is to keep on betting for the Mundys and earn enough money to buy Roland from them and take him to Isaac�s parents� team. In the meantime Ulysses Fairsmith comes back from Africa, where he has taught baseball to the natives and he finds himself with a winning team. But not even drugs can change the team into one that keeps winning and during the last match a fatal mistake costs them the title, Firsmith his life and Ellis all the money won in bets.
7. Angela Trust goes to General Oakhart with an upsetting revelation. Gil Gamesh has come back after years of absence and has proof that much of the Patriot League has been infiltrated by communists! Gamesh confesses that he has has been trained by the Russians to spy and carry out sabotage against the USA, but now he has repented and only wants to help the USA to get rid of Soviet spies; he names them to Oakhart. Franz Mazumer and Ockatur are among the spies. Oakhart immediately guesses that he can take advantage of this news for political ends and heads the witch hunt. He seeks the help of Smitty, but Smitty starts to laugh, though the politicians let themselves be easily convinced and set an official enquiry in motion. In order to terminate his mission, Gamesh gets himself elected as manager of Mundys. The way in which he bringsthem glory back is to instil in them a hatred for everything that is American. Roland Agni is disgusted.

The end is apocalyptic. Roland Agni hears Gil Gamesh speaking Russian and understands that he is the Soviet spy, but he is assassinated before he can unmask him in public. Gamesh is wounded in the attack and makes out that the attack has been carried out in order to to kill him (in actual fact it has been carried out by his sworn enemy Mike Masterson). The attack conrtitrbutes to fuel anticommunist fanaticism. General Oakhart does not hesitate to cause the Patriot League to be destroyed by suspending and denouncing all the suspects. Isaac Ellis and OK Ockatur are sentenced to a year�s prison for having refused to to confess and collaborate. Likewise the journalist Word Smith (Smitty), who will never write another article. Others get away with it by confessing what the commission for anti American activities wants to hear. Only Frank Mazuma carries on fighting the accusations by taking legal action. The Patriot League is dismantled (the staadiums are physically dismantled and Oakhart launches his political career, choosing Yamm as candidate for the vicepresidency. After a few months Gamesh disappears and it is feared that there is a communist vendetta afoot, but instead Gamesh reappears in Moscow in the entourage of Stalin and soon the truth is inconfutable: Gamesh is a soviet agent who has succeeded in his aim to destroy the American pastime of baseball. On Stalin�s death he becomes, however, one of the victims of the settling of old Soviet scores: he is sentenced to death and the Soviets admit his real identity to the Americans. Mazuma recovers his reputation, but clearly none of those who had started the witch hunt admits he has been an idiot.. On the contrary Oakhart encourages senator McCarthy to increase his efforts to show that baseball has not been tarnished by communism. Oakhurt and Yamm, however, die in a mysterious plane accident. The only one to survive the whole affair is Smitty, who in fact reveals that he is the author of the novel. He has tried in vain to get the novel published in America, but no editor has accepted it. So he writes to Mao, introducing himself as the American Solzhenitsyn, persecuted in the same fashion to stop his novel from bringing embarrassment to his country.

The end is a frenzied satire of McCarthyism and is perhaps the most successful part of the novel.

The beginning is, on the other hand, slow and banal, written in the kind of journalistic style taught in the most second rate schools in America. The comedy is forced, like it is in �stand-up comedy� jokes.

Unfortunately many chapters need an understanding of baseball, a very popular game in those times in America, but unknown to the rest of the world.

Poi scoppia la tragedia: Hope decide d'andarsene, Lonoff cerca di trattenerla, Amy se ne va in lacrime. Lonoff s'appresta ad andare a riprendere la moglie, mentre Nathan prende freneticamente nota di tutto; una frase di Lonoff gli fa sospettare che questi sappia che la sera prima lui ha ascoltato la conversazione con Amy, e che, anzi, Lonoff abbia voluto dargli il materiale per una storia (è lui stesso ad invogliarlo a prendere appunti), che abbia voluto fargli vedere, insegnargli come si crea un racconto, quello che stiamo, appunto, leggendo, ed abbia così ulteriormente smitizzato e ridicolizzato l'arte.

Resta, al tempo stesso, il mistero di Amy: è stata o no l'amante di Lonoff? Ed è o no Anna Frank? Ed è vero o non lo è che sostiene di esserlo? Nathan sente soltanto Lonoff dire che lei sostiene d'essere Anna Frank, e non è vero:

- Amy è Anna Frank, e Lonoff lo sa; dice che non ci crede per lasciare volontariamente Nathan nel dubbio;

- Amy è Anna Frank e Lonoff non ci crede: tutto è vero;

- Amy non è Anna Frank, fa solo finta: ciò che Lonoff dice è vero;

- Amy non ha mai detto d'essere Anna Frank: Lonoff ha mentito per dare a Nathan materiale per il suo libro, oppure per prendere in giro la sua smania di scrittore.

Nel mezzo del funerale d'un gangster, Nathan viene di nuovo avvicinato da Pepler, che gli sottopone una recensione di "Carnowsky" con cui vorrebbe iniziare una nuova carriera: Nathan scoppia a ridere, e Pepler - offeso - gli rinfaccia che "Carnowsky" è in realtà composto di tutte le cose che lui disse ai suoi parenti ed amici e che questi riferirono a Nathan, ovvero che Pepler è Carnovsky.

Nathan va poi a trovare Laura, ma lei non c'è, è presa dalle sue attività politiche (il Movement, l'anti- Vietnam, ecc.), e comunque non vuole più vederlo: Carnovsky compie sulla sua donna ogni sorta di erotismi maniacali, e tutti credono che ciò sia successo anche fra Nathan e Laura nella vita reale.

Decide alfine di tornare a scuola: incontra il vecchio compagno di studi Bobby Freitag; si spaccia, con la autista che lo porta in giro per Chicago, per un giornalista pornografico di nome Appel; si droga per non sentire il dolore al collo. Un giorno che ha preso troppa droga accompagna al cimitero il padre di Bobby: aggredisce il vecchio e l'ebraismo, ma crolla prima. Si risveglia in ospedale, con la faccia distrutta e la mandibola sfasciata: gli rifanno la faccia e, durante la convalescenza in ospedale, sembra ritrovare entusiasmo.

Roth�s career has by now a precise shape. The major motive is the exhiliarating psychological essay on self erotism and on the American Dream, which in a way are given the same importance. This is the direction taken by the masterpieces "Portnoy�s Complaint" (1967) and "My Life as a Man"(1974). The way in which the auther puts his comic talent to the service of barely concealed autobiography is an important factor in his recent production. For example "Ghost Writer" (1979), "Zuckerman Unbound", "Anatomy Lesson" (1983), the Zuckerman trllology, and also the Kafkkian parenthesis of "Prague Orgy" (1985).

"Counterlife succeeds in fusing two themes. A mixture of genres which ends up by adopting the features of a metaphysical thriller. The plot, which is the most intricate and skilful of his career, manages to completely confuse the reader, who at the end is left with a doubt: is Zuckerman really dead or isn�t he? And it is this doubt that gives meaning to the book, which is constantly poised between two mysterious and magic truths, between two conflictual anad complementary parts (exemplified by the two Zuckerman brothers themselves)

With "Portnoy's Complaint" (1969) Roth wrote a book that ironized the isolation and all the various kinds of paranoia common to the American Jew. And he did this in the most embarrassing way possible � by means of sexual manias. Roth becomes the main psycholigical novelist of America, but he distances himself forever from his race The persecution which follows the publication of this scandalous book was the topic of the novels Roth wrote in the eighties. Full of regrets Roth descibes in "Ghost Writer" (1979) and "Zuckerman Unbound" (1981) his alter ego, Nathanian Zuckerman, famous and envied, who even his father damns. The saga continues with "Anatomy Lesson" (83) in which his guilt complex borders on madness and destroys his career. In the "Prague Orgy" (85), his comic masterpiece, Zuckerman is in Prague, surrounded by dissidents whom the regime keeps in check with large doses of sex and drugs, looking for the lost maunscript of a great Yiddish writer.

The Counterlife crowns this descent in instalments into the hell of self-destruction with the death of the protagonist. The novel is a metaphysical thriller in which Roth�s technical skill tears into shreds conventional plot structure. There are three or four possible endings, all equally plausible. Yet again the Moebius strip shows itself to be a perfect structure for post modern novels: the narrator switches from the the first person to the third and back again to the first, changing identity each time. To complicate everything there is also a doppelganger: the hearts of both Zuckerman and his dentist brother are operated on in an attempt to treat their sexual impotence, and both die. After his death Zuckerman�s brother leaves his wife to go and fight in Israel, whie Zuckerman marries and goes to live in London, where he is stoned by some local jew haters. In this orgy of of sexual pulsions and death Roth�s narcissism goes a little over the top, but the real mesage of the book comes over: the historical absurdity of being a Jew. "Counterlife", hoewever, has nothing like the perfect concision of "Ghost Writer" and "Prague Orgy, which are in our opinion the best of the five Zuckerman books.

We learn that Seymour met Dawn, a former beauty queen, in college and married her. They had Meredith ("Merry") and a nice life. When the girl was only 11, she was morbidly attracted to her father, and once he kissed her on her mouth. Later she grew up to be emotionally unstable and had to see a speech therapist to correct her stammering. Merry grew up increasingly hostile to her mother. Merry joined the antiwar movement and for a while toyed with the dream of moving to New York. Her father convinced her to stay in their small town while continue fighting for her cause. But one day she blew up the post office, killing a bystander.

After the 16-year-old Merry went into hiding, a tiny woman, Rita, shows up to ask Seymour for some of Merry's personal effects. She is a radical ideologues who accuses Seymour of being a horrible capitalist who exploits workers and Dawn of being a hated mother. Rita is the one who brainwashed Merry. According to Rita, Merry hates her parents and wants no contact with them. Rita is indifferent to murder because the USA is killing thousands in Vietnam. She demands money to be delivered to a hotel. When Seymour shows up with the money, she tries to seduce him to have sex. The second time, realizing that this would never end, he calls the police but Rita escapes. Meanwhile, bombs are going off everywhere. The counry is terrorized by violent antiwar activists and by communists. Riots destroy the peaceful life of the city. Seymour's father begs Seymour to leave town like all the other businesses already did, but Seymour is afraid of how Merry would react. Seymour tries to explain what traumatized Merry and suspects that it was when she, still a child, saw Buddhist monks burn themselves alive in the streets of Vietnam. For five years Seymour lives with no news from Merry.

Then one day of 1973 he receives a letter from Rita in which she volunteers the place where Merry works. Now Seymour is reluctant to bring Merry back in their lives because Dawn just recovered from a suicidal depression and started a new life, even paying for cosmetic surgery in Switzerland to change face and buying a new house so not to be haunted by memories of Merry's childhood. A flashback tells us how Seymour and Dawn met when Dawn was famous as a beauty queen and he was famous as an athlete; how business declined after the 1968 riots and Seymour had to offsource the production of gloves to Czechoslovakia. Seymour is also suspicious of Rita's real intentions. Rita claims to have been subjugated by Merry's personality, of being Merry's disciple, whereas Seymour always thought the opposite. He is tempted to tear up the letter and say nothing to Dawn but instead he drives to the place, which is very near their old home. Merry runs to him happy. He hardly recognizes her: she has become ugly and she is obviously undernourished. She tells him that she has become a Jain, that she avoids killing any form of life, even bacteria. The ideal death is by self-starvation. She doesn't even shower. She takes him to her filthy room in a dilapidated building that she shares with other derelicts. As she tells him how wonderful Jainism is, he realizes that she doesn't stammer anymore. She doesn't know any Rita and never received the money that Seymour paid to Rita. She confesses that she planted the bomb deliberately. Far from feeling remorse for the death of an innocent man, she planted more bombs and killed three more people. Initially she had been sheltered by her speech therapist Sheila and her husband Shelly, and then she had joined a commune and changed her name to Mary. She tells him candidly that she was raped twice and that she became the lover of a married woman until the husband got jealous. Merry decided to flee to communist Cuba but she was almost arrested on the way and was saved by a blind black woman. Merry assisted the blind woman until her death and during that time she began to read about Jainism in the library. First Seymour realizes that his girl has been mad all the time. Then he suspects that this disgusting human being is not his daughter but an impostor. But he recognizes her in her eyes. He begs her to follow him home but she is determined to continue living her miserable life. Back home, he calls his brother Jerry, who has always been the more rational of the two. Jerry, who has lived in the shadow of his famous brother all his life, takes the opportunity to vent all his hard feelings towards his brother, accusing him of being a fake and being incapable of dealing with reality. Jerry offers to go and get Merry with violence but Seymour declines the offer.