What began with ‘The Ghost Writer’ in 1979 ends 9 novels on with Roth’s alter ego, Nathan Zucherman, now 71 years old, returning from 11 years self imposed isolation to find an America greatly changed for the worse. He is full of with grumpy old man observations, like viewing cell phones as “the embodiment of everything I want to escape” and also bemoans the waning of his creative powers “I may have accumulated over four decades the prestige of writing book after book but I had reached the end of my effectiveness nonetheless“. Continue reading
