Who is the greatest American novelist? 5: Philip Roth v Richard Ford
You nominated the contenders now reader Matthew Spencer pits Roth's The Human Stain against Ford's Independence Day Refresh yourself on the first half of the opening round Check out the final 32...
View ArticleBook reviews roundup: Roth Unbound, The Building of England and The Fateful...
What the critics thought of Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books by Claudia Roth Pierpont, The Building of England by Simon Thurley and The Fateful Year: England 1914 by Mark Bostridge"Pierpont...
View ArticleRoth Unbound by Claudia Roth Pierpont review
Claudia Roth Pierpont's apparently authorised biography buys into the great writer's self-imageIt has always been tempting to think of Philip Roth as a confessional writer as honest to his reader as...
View ArticleRoth Unbound: A Writer and His Books by Claudia Roth Pierpont review
Who inspired Philip Roth's characters? This new study claims to reveal many secretsPhilip Roth, at age 40, published the essay "'I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting' or, Looking at Kafka", which...
View ArticlePhilip Roth insists 'I have no desire to write fiction'
'I did what I did and it's done', novelist tells interviewer, explaining that these days he's keener on swimming and watching baseball A happily retired Philip Roth is spending his days swimming,...
View ArticleLives in Writing by David Lodge review
What can a writer's life really tell us about his novels?When Graham Greene published his novel A Burnt-Out Case in 1960, an article appeared in the Daily Express predicting a great deal of "guessing...
View ArticleUpdike review Adam Begley has written an 'exemplary biography
Five years after his death, John Updike's life is well told here but the rescue of his literary reputation must waitThis respectful and sympathetic biography of John Updike (1932-2009) arrives just at...
View ArticleAlan Bennett: drama over his distaste for novels
His controversial remarks about British fiction are not that surprising once you consider his writing careerMark Lawson on Bennett at 80: 'no national treasure'An A-Z of Alan BennettAlan Bennett: a...
View ArticleIs Alan Bennett right to prefer US literature?
One of our best-loved writers scored a goal for the other side last week. Here we debate the relative merits of British and American literatureAlan Bennett said in an interview on BBC4 that he prefers...
View ArticleFrom Scarlett Johansson to Tony Blair to the Queen: the noble tradition of...
Scarlett Johansson is suing a French writer for 'exploiting her name' in his novel about a woman who looks just like her. But there's a long and (mostly) honourable tradition of putting real people in...
View ArticleBye-bye ... Philip Roth talks of fame, sex and growing old in last interview
Great US novelist insists he is quitting public life as he reflects on his many literary identitiesWhen Philip Roth told the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles in November 2012 that he was quitting the...
View ArticleMichael White's diary: Cameron major and minor get personal over legal aid cuts
For QC Alexander it's a stand for legal principle. For his little brother (the prime minister), it's about busting open a lucrative closed shop The court of appeal is on Wednesday expected to overturn...
View ArticleWhy are literary novelists so bad at killing off their careers?
Philip Roth is far from alone in taking a very long time to stop writing having announced that he is retiringWhen novelists say they are retiring, experience suggests it's best to nod politely and not...
View ArticleQuirke; Four Rooms; Philip Roth Unleashed; Happy Valley; and From There to...
Telly addict Andrew Collins review's the BBC British-Irish crime drama Quirke; Channel 4's Four Rooms, in which members of the public sell their valuable artefacts to the country's leading dealers; and...
View ArticleWill the internet kill the literary novel? Depends on who you ask
Author Tim Parks argues that our technology-shredded attention spans have definitively doomed the novel, but many other writers, from John Banville to Francesca Segal, disagreeThe sort of lengthy,...
View ArticleEwan McGregor to star in adaptation of Philip Roth's American Pastoral
McGregor to play the lead role of all-American hero Seymour 'Swede' Levov in Phillip Noyce's film about mid-60s social and political turmoilEwan McGregor will star in the Phillip Noyce political drama...
View ArticleThe top 10 books about Chicago
From Saul Bellow to Philip Roth, novelist Andrew Rosenheim salutes the writers who have captured the beauty, and the ugliness, of his hometownBrowse the archive of Writers' top 10sWhatever Thomas Wolfe...
View ArticleTips, links and suggestions: What are you reading this week?
Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of themWelcome to this week's blog. Here's a roundup of your comments and photos from last week.TreesAreGood shared:Reading American...
View ArticleThe Humbling: Al Pacino's bleary Broadway lion explains the gripes of Roth -...
Its the final curtain for Pacinos ravaged actor in this adaptation of the Philip Roth novel. Might a fling with Greta Gerwigs gay groupie help ease his ills? Hows about a nice shot of horse...
View ArticleThe American novels that should have won the Booker prize
This week the shortlist for Britains top literary award, the Man Booker 2014, included American titles for the first time. We asked writers and critics, including Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Curtis...
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