Zuckerman Unbound

Description

Philip Roth’s fictional alter-ego returns in Zuckerman Unbound, “…masterful, sure in every touch.” (The New York Times)The sensationalizing sixties are coming to an end, and even writing a novel can make you a star. The writer Nathan Zuckerman publishes his fourth book, an aggressive, abrasive, and comically erotic novel entitled Carnovsky, and all at once he is on the cover of Life, one of the decade’s most notorious celebrities.
This is the same Nathan Zuckerman who in Philip Roth’s much praised The Ghost Writer was the dedicated young apprentice drawing sustenance from the great books and the integrity of their authors. Now in his mid-thirties, Zuckerman, a would-be recluse despite his fame, ventures out on the streets of Manhattan, and not only is he assumed to be his own fictional satyr, Gilbert Carnovsky (“Hey, you do all that stuff in that book?”), but he also finds himself the target of admirers, admonishers, advisers, and would-be literary critics. The recent murders of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., lead an unsettled Nathan Zuckerman to wonder if “target” may be more than a figure of speech.
Yet, streetcorner recognition and media notoriety are the least disturbing consequences of writing Carnovsky. Against his best interests, the newly renowned novelist retreats from his oldest friends, breaks his marriage to a virtuous woman, and damages, perhaps irreparably, his affectionate connection to his younger brother and his family. Even when finally he lives out the fantasies of his fans and enjoys an exhilarating night with the beautiful and worldly film star Caesara O’Shea (a rather more capable celebrity), he is dismayed the following morning by the caliber of the competition up in the erotic big leagues.
In some of Zuckerman Unbound‘s funniest episodes Zuckerman endures the blandishments of another New Jersey boy who has briefly achieved his own moment of stardom. He is the broken and resentful fan Alvin Pepler, in the fifties a national celebrity on the TV quiz show “Smart Money.” Thrust back into obscurity when headlined scandals forced the quiz show off the air, Pepler now attaches himself to Zuckerman and won’t let go–an “Angel of Manic Delights” to the amused novelist (who momentarily sees him as his “pop self”), and yet also the likely source of a demonic threat.
But the surprise that fate finally delivers is more devilish than any cooked up by Alvin Pepler, or even by Zuckerman’s imagination. In the coronary-care unit of a Miami Hospital, Nathan’s father bestows upon his older son not a blessing but what seems to be a curse. And, in an astonishingly bitter final turn, a confrontation with his brother opens the way for the novelist’s deep and painful understanding of the deathblow that Carnovsky has dealt to his own past.

Philip Roth (1933-2018) was the award-winning author of Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Great American Novel, and the books that became known as the Zuckerman Trilogy (The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound, The Anatomy Lesson), among many others. His honors include two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, three PEN/Faulkner Awards, the Man Booker International Prize, the National Humanities Medal, and the Pulitzer Prize.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Philip studied literature at Bucknell University, graduating magna cum laude with a B.A., and at the University of Chicago where he received an M.A. From 1955 to 1991, he taught writing and literature classes on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2005, he was the only third living writer whose books were published by the Library of America. He lived in Manhattan and Connecticut.

“It was bold of Roth to write a novel about being famous…a comic stroll in a hall of mirrors.”—Newsweek
“[Roth’s] narrative hand is wonderfully sure, his comic timing worthy of the Ritz Brothers…. Not since Henry MIller has anyone learned to be as funny and compassionate and brutal and plaintive in the space of a paragraph.” —Village Voice
“Zuckerman Unbound is masterful, sure in every touch, as clear and economical of line as a crystal vase.”—The New York Times Book Review