RIP Philip Roth

He’s one of these big writers that I have yet to get round to reading despite a few of my friends being huge fans of his.

I liked him. Haven’t read many books multiple times, but American Pastoral is one of them. My Dad was a big fan, so I think I ended up reading almost all of his books (and I’m not a massive reader). There were a few I didn’t really get on with - think I preferred the late 90s onwards stuff.

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Might knock one out into my dinner tonight as a tribute.

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“Jump” is a choon. RIP.

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Love Phillip Roth, sad to see him go, there’s something so addictive about his writing, he’s for me the next best writer after Nabokov (works time wise too) for managing to handle extremely complicated and controversial themes and make them seem hilarious and absurd.

Favourites (which is basically everything I’ve read) are: Portnoy’s Complaint, The Ghost Writer & The Human Stain. Really should read American Pastoral.

anyway, RIP big man x

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Genuinely saddened today as he is my favourite author, and I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to suggest that he was one of - if not the greatest - American novelists of the late 20th century.

His prose style was beautiful and at the same time could be laugh out loud funny. And he got better and better with age. To think that he wrote American Pastoral at the age of 63 is incredible. One of the greatest American novels ever.

Loved his depiction of jewish homelife, his sympathetic yet cynical depiction of American ideals and his (often funny and awkward) depiction of sex.

A giant of a writer.

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