Obama on Roth, Roth on Obama

Funny what you find on a French web site: Le Magazine-Litteraire has an item that quotes from an interview that Barack Obama gave to Jerry Goldberg--an interview that I can't find on the web--in which he is quoted as saying (translating back into English from the French): "I often say in jest that my intellectual development came about, without my knowing it, through reading Jewish writers and scholars. From theologians to Philip Roth, they have helped me forge my sensibility." ("Je dis souvent en plaisantant que ma formation intellectuelle s’est faite à mon insu, à travers la lecture d’écrivains et d’universitaires juifs. Des théologiens à Philip Roth, ils m’ont aidé à forger ma sensibilité.")

The item then goes on to quote from an interview Roth gave Der Spiegel in which he says kind things about Obama before adding (translating back from the French, itself a translation of the German): "But don't write that I'm going to vote for him [Obama]! This is the kiss of death. I rarely vote for the winner." ("Mais n’écrivez surtout pas que je vais voter pour lui ! Ce serait le baiser de la mort : je vote rarement pour le gagnant.")

Ten Books, Two Women

The Times Book Review has announced its list of the ten best books of the year. Eight of them are by men, including all five of the novels (and Philip Roth was not among them).

Congrats to Alex Ross for making the list with The Rest is Noise. That book is a wonderful introduction to the music--classical music, I suppose one should say--of our time, written with the warmth and pluralistic outlook that grace his columns and blog. It's reassuring to know that the Times Book Review sees its worth. If anyone can bring this kind of music back into the cultural conversation, it's Ross.

The rest of the list looks equally worthy. Still, it's a surprise to see so few women on it.

Metcalf on Roth

After I read Exit Ghost, I considered posting, but I had trouble wrestling to the ground what I really thought. There is much to celebrate in it, but there is also much of the dross that has crept into late Roth--the often flat writing, the unnaturalistic dialogue in which characters give speeches that go on for paragraphs. Worse in Exit Ghost is a female character to whom Nathan Zuckerman is drawn, and who seems to possess absolutely no attractive qualities whatsoever, aside from youthful good looks (which we have only on Zucerkman's say-so). But there is also the Rothian honesty, of looking at life squarely and unflinchingly, of testifying to emotions that we may not have rights to but that still need to be expressed. Few writers have that kind of courage.

Anyway, Stephen Metcalf (a friend), in his usual adept fashion, has reviewed the book and has done a much better job than I could have in getting a handle on Roth and his contradictions.