The Ghost Writer

The Nathan Zuckerman Series, Book 1

De: Philip Roth

Narrado por: Malcolm Hillgartner

The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff.

At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress. Zuckerman, with his active, youthful imagination, wonders if she could be the paradigmatic victim of Nazi persecution. If she were, it might change his life.

The first volume in the Zuckerman Bound trilogy and epilogue, The Ghost Writer is about the tensions between literature and life, artistic truthfulness and conventional decency - and about those implacable practitioners who live with the consequences of sacrificing one for the other.

©1979 Philip Roth (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Difficult book

No problem with the narrator, but it is just a difficult book to understand. Philip roth was a fabulous author but not for the easily distracted

Revelation

Believe it or not it’s thought provoking . Reminded me of the movie Anastasia . U’ll have to listen to under stand . About to embark on the whole Zuckerman series . Can’t wait !

Turning Sentences Around

“I know the kind of man I am and the kind of writer. I have my own kind of bravery, and please, let’s leave it at that.”
― Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer

I've read a ton of Roth, but have yet to really engage the Zuckerman series. The Ghost Writer is book one in the four book cycle Zuckerman Bound:

1. The Ghost Writer (1979)
2. Zuckerman Unbound (1981)
3. The Anatomy Lesson (1983)
4. The Prague Orgy (1985)

It is hard to engage some of the more specific reasons WHY I loved this book -- without giving away some of the more the dramatic elements. However, within that constraint I CAN say I loved how Roth explores both what it means to be a Jewish writer (with all the expectations that come with that occupation in a post-holocaust world) and what it means to be a fiction writer period. How art reflects life and life is impacted by the work and the flow of art. There are few living writers whose output I respect more than Philip Roth, and while I don't think his 80s novels stand up entirely to later novels, he is still stretching the limits of prose and dangling ideas and situations that are both entertaining and almost absurd.

Sorry, I Can’t Go with the Conventional Thinking

I know the book has been seen to be a significant one and received generally critical acclaim back in the day.

I’ve listened to it carefully and read some of the favorable reviews and criticism. For the most part, I just don’t get it.

First, I don’t believe it makes it as either a solid short story or a novel. The characters generally aren’t developed enough to be understood with any particular depth. I’d like that as to either form, but it’s especially sorry, if this is supposed to be a novel.

I see some texture in Nathan, but then out of the blue crops up the whole Anne Frank deal. I won’t be a spoiler for any of you, but it’s crucial. And I think it’s cooked up, out of nowhere, and it doesn’t take the story in any clear direction. In my view. I see Roth’s scheme. Interesting. But, in my view, contrived.

As to Roth’s use of some of these characters to show something about major Jewish literary figures of the 60s, etc., that might have interested readers then. And it interests me for a variety of reasons. But I don’t see anything lasting in it, or meaning and value in the novel per se.

I’ll listen to the remaining books in the trilogy. And if I change my mind, I’ll be more generous in a later review.

But, as for me, no great shakes here.

The beginning of Nathan Zuckerman

Wonderful story. Read it years ago. I have read everything by Roth, decided to listen to them a second time around. Fun to see where Nathan began, and then to watch him develop as well Roth through all these novels! Philip and Nathan will be missed, luckily we can turn on an audible when we need a fix! Enjoyed the narrator.