The New Yorker Radio Hour

Episode Summary: “Philip Roth’s American Portraits and American Prophecy”

Date: July 20, 2018
Host: David Remnick

Overview

This rich and reflective episode pays tribute to the life, work, and cultural legacy of Philip Roth, one of America's most audacious literary voices, following his death in May 2018. Through a blend of interviews, readings, and commentary, host David Remnick explores Roth’s evolving literary career, his profound engagement with Jewish-American identity and postwar America, and the provocations and controversies—especially regarding sex and gender—that shadowed him. Insights come from Roth’s biographer Blake Bailey, literary critics and friends (Judith Thurman, Claudia Roth Pierpont, Lisa Halliday), and Roth himself, alongside evocative readings by Liev Schreiber from key Roth novels.

Main Themes and Structure

1. Roth’s Literary Evolution & American Obsession
2. Personal History and Formative Years
3. Breakthrough & Fallout: Portnoy’s Complaint
4. Reinvention: The American Trilogy and Later Work
5. Debates on Gender, Misogyny, and Legacy
6. Death, Mortality, and Final Reflections
7. Roth’s Own Voice: Purpose, Craft, and Method

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Roth’s Place in American Letters and Main Themes

• Roth is remembered as a realist, satirist, postmodernist, and psychological novelist whose ever-changing style mapped the turbulence, anxieties, and aspirations of 20th-century America ([00:41]).
• Remnick notes Roth's prescient anticipation of a Trump-like figure in “The Plot Against America,” underscoring his capacity to “think about what made America what it is” ([00:41]).

Memorable Quote

“Philip was many a realist, a satirist, a postmodernist, a writer about lust, identity, Jewishness, the self.”
— David Remnick [00:41]

2. Roth’s Childhood and Sense of Security/Estrangement

• Blake Bailey outlines Roth’s upbringing in Newark, New Jersey—specifically Weequahic, a predominantly Jewish and relatively safe neighborhood
• Roth’s father, Herman, worked hard, selling burial insurance and enduring the economic insecurity of the depression ([03:15]).
• Roth’s early awareness of virulent American antisemitism, especially during the 1930s and WWII, came through exposure to anti-Semitic radio and incidents nearby ([04:24]).

Notable Quote

“He lived in the Weequahic section of Newark, which was 96% Jewish...He felt very safe and secure...but especially during the war...there was very virulent anti-Semitism out there in the 30s.”
— Blake Bailey [03:15]

3. Portnoy’s Complaint: Breakthrough and Burden

• “Portnoy’s Complaint” (1969) made Roth an international celebrity and object of controversy—selling over 4 million copies within five years ([05:49]).
• Blake Bailey notes Roth often said, “If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have published that book.” Despite its enormous success, the association with explicit sexual material and public jokes traumatized Roth ([06:44]).
• An anecdote: After relocating to the country to escape attention, a stranger recognized and heckled him from a passing car—“It’s Portnoy!” ([08:22]).

Memorable Quote

“He was famous, as he liked to say, ‘I'm famous as a jerk off artist. I'm not famous as a novelist.’”
— Blake Bailey [07:27]

4. Later Career: Reinvention, The American Trilogy, and Beyond

• Unlike many writers who decline after their breakthroughs, Roth continued to innovate, culminating in novels like The Ghost Writer, Sabbath's Theater, and especially the “American Trilogy” (American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, The Human Stain) ([11:05]).
• Bailey explains that Roth long sought to “transcend the merely personal” with books like American Pastoral, seeing these as efforts to chronicle America’s broader transformations ([11:56]).

Notable Quote

“He knew this material was the opportunity to transcend the merely personal. And finally, he found a way to do it.”
— Blake Bailey [13:06]

5. Roth’s Legacy and Place in the Canon

• Bailey expresses optimism about Roth’s enduring status, citing his breadth—comic, naturalistic, postmodern, political, and elegiac novels ([14:29]).

Notable Quote

“His achievement is so diverse...His women have flaws. And somehow I think we’re in a little bit of a position regarding him where it’s considered wrong or hateful for him, maybe because he already has acquired the reputation he has to look at women who are flawed. But everybody in his books is flawed."
— Claudia Roth Pierpont [31:45]

6. The Gender Controversy: Sex, Misogyny, and #MeToo

• The episode delves into persistent criticism of Roth’s depiction of women, especially in the MeToo era. Critics like Vivian Gornick accuse his work of “woman hating” ([28:16]).
• Judith Thurman asserts the confusion lies in equating Roth’s (and his characters’) sexual voracity with misogyny. Roth’s self-awareness, regret around Portnoy’s Complaint, and the toll of public mockery are discussed ([27:04]).
• Claudia Roth Pierpont and Lisa Halliday argue Roth’s intent was always to “know humanity and to reflect it, not to change it or make it into a moral project” ([27:23], [28:16]).
• Lisa Halliday notes many female readers experience awe and, at times, discomfort, but she doesn’t view the works as misogynistic ([31:02]).

Notable Quotes

“The task is not to change humanity, but to know it.”
— Lisa Halliday quoting Flaubert, as written to her by Philip Roth [27:23]

“His narrators are in awe of many of the female characters, and...maybe occasionally that translates into a slight sense of fear on the part of the male character...But I don't know how we get from there to misogyny. I don't understand it.”
— Lisa Halliday [31:02]

7. Reflections on Mortality and End of Life

• Roth’s secularism and recurring preoccupation with death are highlighted, both in his fiction and personal choices.
• His funeral was “the most secular...I ever attended,” with passages read from his novels, but “no kaddish, no prayer at all” ([34:57]).
• Stories suggest that toward the end, Roth saw dying as a final piece of work, facing his mortality with resignation but without fear, seeking autonomy even in his passing ([37:09]).

Notable Quotes

“He said, I want to live or I want to die, but I'm not going to stay in the middle. And after that, he saw dying as the same kind of work that he had saw writing...‘I have work to do. And by that he meant, I have the work of dying.’”
— Judith Thurman [37:09]

8. Roth’s Voice: On Writing, Purpose, and Process

• Roth’s own interview with Remnick is candid, witty, and philosophical, covering childhood in Newark ([44:24]), what drives him as a writer ([47:30]), and the blend of “sheer playfulness and deadly seriousness” that fuels artistic creation ([45:52]).
• On the evolution of his craft, Roth credits “patience...tolerance for your own crudeness...and a kind of belief in your crap. Just stay with your crap and it’ll get better.” ([48:23])
• Invoking painterly metaphors, Roth likens his own writing style to Jackson Pollock’s “density” and coverage of the canvas—"I tried to cover every square inch with real stuff" ([50:51]).
• On knowledge gained in writing:

  “There’s a knowledge that the writing produces. That is not your knowledge. It’s produced by the demands of the narrative. And lo and behold, there’s knowledge there, or wisdom, even, of all things.” ([51:04])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• "Life during the French Revolution was shocking...He said during the Revolution you’d have to eat a live toad for breakfast in order not to run into something more disgusting during the course of the day.”
  — Philip Roth [01:55]

• “He was famous as a jerk off artist. I'm not famous as a novelist.”
  — Blake Bailey [07:27]

• “The task is not to change humanity, but to know it.”
  — Written by Roth, quoted via Lisa Halliday [27:23]

• “He said there are two things to fear in life, death and biography.”
  — Claudia Roth Pierpont [21:43]

• "You fight your superficiality, your shallowness...The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong. That is living."
  — Liev Schreiber, reading Roth's American Pastoral [53:11]

Selected Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:41] – David Remnick opens with Roth’s literary significance and scope.
• [01:55] – Roth on shocking historical moments and Vietnam.
• [03:15–05:17] – Blake Bailey details Roth’s Newark childhood and early antisemitic experiences.
• [05:49] – Portnoy's Complaint: Success, public perception, regret, and impact.
• [11:05–13:06] – Roth’s mid- and late-career reinventions; American Trilogy discussed.
• [14:29] – Roth’s future legacy and canonical status.
• [18:33] – Liev Schreiber reads from Everyman (passage on religion and mortality).
• [20:10–31:45] – Panel on gender, misogyny, and Roth’s controversial reputation among readers.
• [34:10] – Roth’s views on America, disillusionment, and Trump era.
• [37:09] – Roth’s attitude toward dying; treating death as “work.”
• [44:24–53:11] – David Remnick’s 2003 interview with Roth on writing, Newark, self-perception, and the writing process.
• [53:11] – Liev Schreiber reads a philosophical passage from American Pastoral.

Conclusion

The episode paints a full-length portrait of Philip Roth as an artist in perpetual reinvention—by turns controversial, celebrated, introspective, and prophetic. Through readings, reminiscences, debates, and Roth’s own wry commentary, listeners gain an appreciation for both the daring textures of Roth’s work and the layered ambiguities of his public persona. Roth’s legacy, the episode suggests, is as much about understanding flawed humanity—American and otherwise—as it is about producing canonical fiction.

This summary captures key content, speaker insights, and memorable exchanges for listeners who want a comprehensive sense of the episode’s depth and range.