''Zuckerman Bound'' is a trilogy of novels by
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
, originally published in 1985.
Plot
Each of the books follows the struggles and writing career of Roth's novelist
alter ego
An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...
Nathan Zuckerman
Nathan Zuckerman is a fictional character created by the writer Philip Roth, who uses him as his protagonist and narrator, a type of alter ego, in many of his novels.
Character
Roth first created a character named Nathan Zuckerman in the novel '' ...
.
Contents
The bound trilogy consists of:
*''
The Ghost Writer
''The Ghost Writer'' is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his ''Zuckerman Bound'' ...
'' (1979)
*''
Zuckerman Unbound
''Zuckerman Unbound'' is a 1981 novel by the American author Philip Roth.
Nathan Zuckerman
The novel resumes the story of Roth's fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman that was inaugurated by Roth's previous novel ''The Ghost Writer''.
Themes
Like ...
'' (1981)
*''
The Anatomy Lesson'' (1983)
And an epilogue:
*''
The Prague Orgy
''The Prague Orgy'' (1985) is a novella by Philip Roth. The short book is the epilogue to his trilogy '' Zuckerman Bound''. The story follows Roth's alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, on a journey to Communist Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: ...
'' (1985)
Reception
''Zuckerman Bound'' met with great acclaim upon publication. In ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' critic Harold Bloom wrote, Zuckerman Bound' merits something reasonably close to the highest level of esthetic praise for tragicomedy, partly because as a formal totality it becomes much more than the sum of its parts."
After Roth's passing, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' asked several prominent authors to name their favorite work by Roth.
Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine (; born May 31, 1974) is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his ongoing comic book series ''Optic Nerve'' and his illustrations in ''The New Yorker''.
Early life
Adrian Tomine was born May 31, 1974, in Sacramento, Calif ...
selected ''Zuckerman Bound'', writing: "By design, these linked stories have the ring of autobiographical truth, like an unsparing series of dispatches from the front lines of, well, being a wildly talented, successful and complicated writer from New Jersey at the end of the twentieth century. I actually have no idea how closely the narratives correlate with the author’s real life, but these, more than any other of Roth’s books, strike me as someone perfectly articulating the one thing he is an absolute authority on: How the world looks, feels and sounds to him. They’re the stories that first come to mind when I think of Philip Roth, and they’re the ones that I’ve returned to the most."
Different editions
The
Library of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
edition, ''
Zuckerman Bound: A Trilogy & Epilogue 1979–1985'', also includes a previously unpublished television screenplay for ''The Prague Orgy''.
External links
Harold Bloom on ''Zuckerman Bound''
References
Novels by Philip Roth
Novel series
{{1980s-novel-stub