''Zuckerman Unbound'' is a 1981 novel by the American author
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 ...
.
Nathan Zuckerman
The novel resumes the story of Roth's fictional alter ego
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 '' ...
that was inaugurated by Roth's previous novel ''
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'' ...
''.
Themes
Like much of Roth's fiction, ''Zuckerman Unbound'' confronts the tenuous relationship between an author and his creations.
Quiz show scandals
The novel—through its supporting cast—explores the
quiz show scandals
The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American Game show, television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearr ...
of the 1950s, which also form the basis for
Robert Redford's 1994 drama ''
Quiz Show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, sh ...
''. In Roth's novel,
Herb Stempel
Herbert Milton Stempel (December 19, 1926 – April 7, 2020) was an American television game show contestant and subsequent whistleblower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the 1950s quiz show scandals. His rigged ...
and
Charles Van Doren
Charles Lincoln Van Doren (February 12, 1926 – April 9, 2019) was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the U.S. Congress that he had been given the corr ...
—played in the Redford film by, respectively,
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro (; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his contributions to the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, ...
and
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes ( ; born 22 December 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he excelled onstage at the Royal National Theatre before having further success at the Royal Shak ...
—are called Alvin Pepler and Hewlett Lincoln.
Plot summary
The novel parallels several real events in Roth's life, including the publication of his 1969 novel ''
Portnoy's Complaint
''Portnoy's Complaint'' is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation u ...
'' and the hoopla which surrounded Roth in the wake of that novel's fame. By analogy, in ''Zuckerman Unbound'', Zuckerman has achieved meteoric acclaim and notoriety with ''Carnovsky'', a coming-of-age sex romp that differs remarkably from Zuckerman's previously Jamesian fiction. The extent to which the details of the Zuckerman character can be safely compared to those of Roth has been a subject of zealous debate among Roth's readers. Roth himself has weighed in on the debate, both in interviews and within his fiction.
''Zuckerman Bound''
The first and last books in the initial Zuckerman trilogy are 1979's ''
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'' ...
'' and 1983's ''
The Anatomy Lesson''. The three were collected and republished in 1985 as ''
Zuckerman Bound
''Zuckerman Bound'' is a trilogy of novels by Philip Roth, originally published in 1985.
Plot
Each of the books follows the struggles and writing career of Roth's novelist alter ego Nathan Zuckerman.
Contents
The bound trilogy consists of:
...
''.
Critical reception
Critic
John Lahr
John Henry Lahr (born July 12, 1941) is an American theater critic and writer. From 1992 to 2013, he was a staff writer and the senior drama critic at ''The New Yorker''. He has written more than twenty books related to theater. Lahr has been ca ...
, in ''
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...
'', called the novel "fascinating." In ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'',
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...
remarked, "Always one of the most intelligent and energetic of American writers, he has now become one of the most scrupulous." In ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', R. Z. Sheppard praised Roth's "comic genius." 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 ...
'',
[Harold Bloom, "His Long Ordeal By Laughter," ''The New York Times Book Review'', May 19, 1985.] critic Harold Bloom said of the three collected Zuckerman novels, "''Zuckerman Bound'' merits something reasonably close to the highest level of esthetic praise for tragicomedy."
See also
*
Quiz show scandals
The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American Game show, television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearr ...
* ''
Quiz Show (1994)''
*
Herb Stempel
Herbert Milton Stempel (December 19, 1926 – April 7, 2020) was an American television game show contestant and subsequent whistleblower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the 1950s quiz show scandals. His rigged ...
* ''
Zuckerman Bound
''Zuckerman Bound'' is a trilogy of novels by Philip Roth, originally published in 1985.
Plot
Each of the books follows the struggles and writing career of Roth's novelist alter ego Nathan Zuckerman.
Contents
The bound trilogy consists of:
...
''
External links
Harold Bloom on ''Zuckerman Bound''
References
1981 American novels
Novels by Philip Roth
Farrar, Straus and Giroux books
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