Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey Paperback Book

Description: Philip Roth by Blake Bailey I dont want you to rehabilitate me, Philip Roth said to his only authorised biographer, Blake Bailey. Just make me interesting. Granted complete independence and access, Bailey spent almost ten years poring over Roths personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and listening to Roths own breathtakingly candid confessions. Cynthia Ozick, in her front-page rave for theNew York Times Book Review, described Baileys monumental biography as a narrative masterwork...As in a novel, what is seen at first to be casual chance is revealed at last to be a steady and powerfully demanding drive...under Baileys strong light what remains on the page is one writers life as it was lived, and almost as it was felt.Though Roth is generally considered an autobiographical novelist - his alter-egos include not only the Roth-like writer Nathan Zuckerman, but also a recurring character named Philip Roth - relatively little is known about the actual life on which so vast an oeuvre was supposedly based. Bailey reveals a man who, by design, led a highly compartmentalised life: a tireless champion of dissident writers behind the Iron Curtain on the one hand, Roth was also the Mickey Sabbath-like roue who pursued scandalous love affairs and aspired [t]o affront and affront and affront till there was no one on earth unaffronted - the man who was pilloried by his second wife, the actress Claire Bloom, in her 1996 memoir,Leaving a Dolls House.Towering above it all was Roths achievement: thirty-one books that give us the truest picture we have of the way we live now, as the poet Mark Strand put it in his remarks for Roths Gold Medal at the 2001 American Academy of Arts and Letters ceremonial. Tracing Roths path from realism to farce to metafiction to the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores Roths engagement with nearly every aspect of postwar American culture. FORMAT Paperback CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Blake Baileyis the author of acclaimed biographies of John Cheever, Richard Yates, and Charles Jackson, and his biography of Philip Roth will be published in 2021. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians, and a finalist for the Pulitzer and James Tait Black Prizes. His most recent book,The Splendid Things We Planned, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography. He lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter. Review "Blake Baileys comprehensive life of Philip Rothto tell it outrightis a narrative masterwork ... As in a novel, what is seen at first to be casual chance is revealed at last to be a steady and powerfully demanding drive. ... under Baileys strong light what remains on the page is one writers life as it was lived, andalmostas it was felt." Cynthia Ozick, New York Times Book Review (cover) "Bailey is industrious, rigorous, and uncowed. ... Although Roth would not have enjoyed some of the tumult that will now attend its publication, he might have admired his biographers ... refusal to fall under his subjects sway. The man who emerges is a literary genius, constantly getting it wrong, loving others, then hurting them, wrestling with himself and with language, devoted to an almost unfathomable degree to the art of fiction." David Remnick, The New Yorker "[Roth] got to be remembered [in Baileys biography] as a man: hilarious, mercurial, genuinely kind but fickle and meanspirited too. A man, rather than an inert legacy." Mark Oppenheimer, New York Times Magazine "Superlative ... Baileys account is definitive and genuinely gripping to boot. ... He leads us lucidly through a dense palimpsest of overlapping drafts, fictional identities, literary feuds and women." Claire Lowdon, Times of London "Meticulous, masterfully organized and heroically fair-minded ... [T]here are sparkling scenes portraying Truman Capotes Black and White Ball, lunching with the Kennedys on Marthas Vineyard, even a flirtation with Jackie Onassis, the only woman Roth was too awed by to pursue." Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal "Beautifully written ... compulsively readable ... It is hard to imagine a book that will come up with a more definitive series of answers than this one." Tim Adams, Observer "A wonderful book that seems certain to become the definitive biography of Roths fascinating, sometimes troubling, lifeRoth was a brilliant writer, and Bailey does him justice in this beautifully written and highly readable volume." Michael Schaub, Boston Globe "Monumental and engrossing ... Bailey brings new information and a fresh perspective ... Is Baileys compassionate and comprehensive book the biography? No other biographer will have known Roth so well, had such unlimited access to his archives, had a chance to ask him rude questions, even to watch him as he lay dying." Elaine Showalter, Times Literary Supplement (cover) "Bailey is a very good writer and a very good literary biographer. A double- or triple-natured subject is not beyond him. ... What a story. ... Bailey certainly lets the repellent in, and along with it comes the man in his wholeness." James Parker, The Atlantic "Unassailable as to fact ... clear-eyed ... quickly moving ... Philip Roth seems as brightly peopled as a Victorian novel. ... What [Bailey] does superbly ... is chart Roths sexual and emotional life, and map its effects on his work." Michael Gorra, New York Review of Books "Roth would approve of this biography, too, not because its partial but because Baileys industriousness is on a par with his own ... its a miracle that he has published so lucid a book just three years after Roths deathand one so packed with good anecdotes and jokes." Blake Morrison, The Guardian "[A] totemic and compulsively readable biography." Christian Lorentzen, Bookforum "Magisterial and definitive ... dont do justice to Blake Baileys years-in-the-making opus. ... Bailey meticulously conjures the career of one of Americas literary titans, the devils and angels that shaped his work." O, The Oprah Magazine "Philip Roth, for all his flaws, for all that I know his legacy will continue to be judged in judgmental times and found wanting, deserves this riveting, serious and deeply intelligent biography." David Baddiel, The Spectator "Fascinating ... Baileys utterly engrossing biography shows Roth led a life just as strange and intense as his fictionalized alter egos." Tomiwa Owolade, Evening Standard "Blake Baileys book is definitive. Its also often funny, sometimes appalling, and always fascinatinglike its subject." Jacqueline Cutler, New York Daily News "A stunning feat, this is as dynamic and gripping as any of Roths own fictions." Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Excellent...evenhanded...Roth gave Bailey access to his archive and sat down for interviews, and it shows, especially in the many intimate details about Roths personal life...An outstanding biography." Kirkus (starred review) "Fully authorized, comprehensive, and engrossing ... a consummate and unforgettable biography of a controversial, virtuoso, and indelible American writer." Booklist (starred review) "Philip Roth, to go with his legendary talent, was a lucky man. That streak continues with Blake Baileys charming, wise, and witty biography, which achieves a balance and comprehensiveness that shouldnt have been possible so soon after Roths death." Jonathan Lethem Additional Praise for Blake Baileys Philip Roth: "A colorful, confident and uncompromising biographical triumph that, at more than 800 pages, also manages to be conversationally readable. ... no one writing about Roth will be able to sidestep this foundational biography." Alexander C. Kafka, Washington Post "Magnificent ... Roths biography is a book Bailey seemed destined to write."Bryan Appleyard, Times of London "Blake Bailey has done an absolutely superb job with the masses of material he had to work with, and with a very controlling subject. He manages to strike a sane and equable tone, and while he demonstrates a certain sympathy for Roth, he is nobodys fool. The result is a detailed portrait of a man who is self-obsessed but generous and often kind; full of bile, yet, to many people, the funniest man they ever met; a devoted friend to many, an equally fervent foe to many others." Brooke Allen, The New Criterion "Bailey has written the finest biography of his stellar career, striking a balance between Roths life and work, and he has meticulously traced the connections between the two with shrewdness, skill and sympathy. Yes, the preeminent novelist of frailty, carnality and mortality, the serial adulterer who picked up women in elevators, the writer who quarreled with critics, Philip Roth, lives." David Biespiel, Houston Chronicle "Richly textured ... revelatory ... Philip Roth conjures the intellectually overpowering, sexually omnivorous, wounded, hilarious, monumental literary figure as fully as possible." Donald Weber, Jewish Book Council "A magnificent booksedulous, scrupulous, fair-minded, reassuringly elegant in toneeverything Roth ... could have hoped for." Christopher Bray, The Critic "Magisterial." Eric Cortellessa, Washington Monthly "Well-researched and engrossing." Mark Athitakis, USA Today "Voluminously researched, good-humored, and honestly written. Readers will discover new information about Roths personal life and probably even learn about written works of his that they didnt know existed." Dan Kubis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Blake Baileys biography of Philip Roth is that rare sort of book, meticulous without sacrificing dramatic energy, endlessly entertaining without ever surrendering critical integrity, candid without forfeiting compassion. ... He presents Roths life and books with grace and unflinching honesty, connecting the man to the work in a way that makes each more compelling as the story proceeds. ... This book is not the tip of the iceberg but the iceberg itself." Michael Pearson, Virginian-Pilot "Compelling and sympathetic ... wonderfully engaging ... Baileys many extended interviews with Roth and others supplement his research which the biographer weaves expertly so that we see, as Roth proclaims, how Art is Life ... a riveting read of a great American master." Paul Perry, Irish Independent Long Description I dont want you to rehabilitate me, Philip Roth said to his only authorised biographer, Blake Bailey. Just make me interesting. Granted complete independence and access, Bailey spent almost ten years poring over Roths personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and listening to Roths own breathtakingly candid confessions. Cynthia Ozick, in her front-page rave for the New York Times Book Review , described Baileys monumental biography as a narrative masterwork...As in a novel, what is seen at first to be casual chance is revealed at last to be a steady and powerfully demanding drive...under Baileys strong light what remains on the page is one writers life as it was lived, and almost as it was felt. Though Roth is generally considered an autobiographical novelist -- his alter-egos include not only the Roth-like writer Nathan Zuckerman, but also a recurring character named Philip Roth -- relatively little is known about the actual life on which so vast an oeuvre was supposedly based. Bailey reveals a man who, by design, led a highly compartmentalised life: a tireless champion of dissident writers behind the Iron Curtain on the one hand, Roth was also the Mickey Sabbath-like rou Review Quote "Blake Baileys comprehensive life of Philip Rothto tell it outrightis a narrative masterwork ... As in a novel, what is seen at first to be casual chance is revealed at last to be a steady and powerfully demanding drive. ... under Baileys strong light what remains on the page is one writers life as it was lived, andalmostas it was felt." Cynthia Ozick, New York Times Book Review (cover) "Bailey is industrious, rigorous, and uncowed. ... Although Roth would not have enjoyed some of the tumult that will now attend its publication, he might have admired his biographers ... refusal to fall under his subjects sway. The man who emerges is a literary genius, constantly getting it wrong, loving others, then hurting them, wrestling with himself and with language, devoted to an almost unfathomable degree to the art of fiction." David Remnick, The New Yorker "[Roth] got to be remembered [in Baileys biography] as a man: hilarious, mercurial, genuinely kind but fickle and meanspirited too. A man, rather than an inert legacy." Mark Oppenheimer, New York Times Magazine "Superlative ... Baileys account is definitive and genuinely gripping to boot. ... He leads us lucidly through a dense palimpsest of overlapping drafts, fictional identities, literary feuds and women." Claire Lowdon, Times of London "Meticulous, masterfully organized and heroically fair-minded ... [T]here are sparkling scenes portraying Truman Capotes Black and White Ball, lunching with the Kennedys on Marthas Vineyard, even a flirtation with Jackie Onassis, the only woman Roth was too awed by to pursue." Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal "Beautifully written ... compulsively readable ... It is hard to imagine a book that will come up with a more definitive series of answers than this one." Tim Adams, Observer "A wonderful book that seems certain to become the definitive biography of Roths fascinating, sometimes troubling, lifeRoth was a brilliant writer, and Bailey does him justice in this beautifully written and highly readable volume." Michael Schaub, Boston Globe "Monumental and engrossing ... Bailey brings new information and a fresh perspective ... Is Baileys compassionate and comprehensive book the biography? No other biographer will have known Roth so well, had such unlimited access to his archives, had a chance to ask him rude questions, even to watch him as he lay dying." Elaine Showalter, Times Literary Supplement (cover) "Bailey is a very good writer and a very good literary biographer. A double- or triple-natured subject is not beyond him. ... What a story. ... Bailey certainly lets the repellent in, and along with it comes the man in his wholeness." James Parker, The Atlantic "Unassailable as to fact ... clear-eyed ... quickly moving ... Philip Roth seems as brightly peopled as a Victorian novel. ... What [Bailey] does superbly ... is chart Roths sexual and emotional life, and map its effects on his work." Michael Gorra, New York Review of Books "Roth would approve of this biography, too, not because its partial but because Baileys industriousness is on a par with his own ... its a miracle that he has published so lucid a book just three years after Roths deathand one so packed with good anecdotes and jokes." Blake Morrison, The Guardian "[A] totemic and compulsively readable biography." Christian Lorentzen, Bookforum "Magisterial and definitive ... dont do justice to Blake Baileys years-in-the-making opus. ... Bailey meticulously conjures the career of one of Americas literary titans, the devils and angels that shaped his work." O, The Oprah Magazine "Philip Roth, for all his flaws, for all that I know his legacy will continue to be judged in judgmental times and found wanting, deserves this riveting, serious and deeply intelligent biography." David Baddiel, The Spectator "Fascinating ... Baileys utterly engrossing biography shows Roth led a life just as strange and intense as his fictionalized alter egos." Tomiwa Owolade, Evening Standard "Blake Baileys book is definitive. Its also often funny, sometimes appalling, and always fascinatinglike its subject." Jacqueline Cutler, New York Daily News "A stunning feat, this is as dynamic and gripping as any of Roths own fictions." Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Excellent...evenhanded...Roth gave Bailey access to his archive and sat down for interviews, and it shows, especially in the many intimate details about Roths personal life...An outstanding biography." Kirkus (starred review) "Fully authorized, comprehensive, and engrossing ... a consummate and unforgettable biography of a controversial, virtuoso, and indelible American writer." Booklist (starred review) "Everything you ever wanted to know about Philip Roth you can discover in his novels. Everything you ever wanted to know about what it took to become one of the greatest American writers of our time, you will find in Blake Baileys breathtaking biography." Nicole Krauss "Philip Roth, to go with his legendary talent, was a lucky man. That streak continues with Blake Baileys charming, wise, and witty biography, which achieves a balance and comprehensiveness that shouldnt have been possible so soon after Roths death." Jonathan Lethem Additional Praise for Blake Baileys Philip Roth : "A colorful, confident and uncompromising biographical triumph that, at more than 800 pages, also manages to be conversationally readable. ... no one writing about Roth will be able to sidestep this foundational biography." Alexander C. Kafka, Washington Post "Magnificent ... Roths biography is a book Bailey seemed destined to write." Bryan Appleyard, Times of London "Blake Bailey has done an absolutely superb job with the masses of material he had to work with, and with a very controlling subject. He manages to strike a sane and equable tone, and while he demonstrates a certain sympathy for Roth, he is nobodys fool. The result is a detailed portrait of a man who is self-obsessed but generous and often kind; full of bile, yet, to many people, the funniest man they ever met; a devoted friend to many, an equally fervent foe to many others." Brooke Allen, The New Criterion "Bailey has written the finest biography of his stellar career, striking a balance between Roths life and work, and he has meticulously traced the connections between the two with shrewdness, skill and sympathy. Yes, the preeminent novelist of frailty, carnality and mortality, the serial adulterer who picked up women in elevators, the writer who quarreled with critics, Philip Roth, lives." David Biespiel, Houston Chronicle "Rich Details ISBN1510769722 Author Blake Bailey Format Paperback Year 2021 ISBN-13 9781510769724 Imprint Sky Pony Press Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Pages 960 Publication Date 2021-06-29 NZ Release Date 2021-06-29 US Release Date 2021-06-29 UK Release Date 2021-06-29 Illustrations three inserts of 16pp 1c = 48pp Subtitle The Biography Publisher Skyhorse Publishing DEWEY B Audience General AU Release Date 2021-09-30 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:133809013;

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