Iconic writer
GQ magazine has named Philip Roth its literary “icon of the year.” The sprawling interview is more musing by the interviewer on the border of self-indulgence than insight from the subject, but the writer salvages the interview by pointing out that Roth has mostly complete disregard for self promotion, so the interview was doomed from the start.
The interview is a good introduction to Roth’s range of work, touching on the various periods of his fifty years of writing, finding, as so many others have, that at an age when Roth could retire with the other lions of his generation he is, in fact, writing better than ever. The interview touches on the usual subject — is Roth’s fiction a barely disguised account of his life? — but also on Roth’s opinions of the movies that have been made of several of his novels (he hates them).
The interview ends in just about the only way I think an interview with a serious writer should. Roth states that hard, steady work is his greatest satisfaction. He’s sustained the work for half a century, so it must be satisfying.
Tags: Philip Roth
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