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  1. The New York Times CompanyCharles McGrath5/23/1821 min
    3 reads6 comments
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    The New York Times Company
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    • erica5 years ago

      I'm so sad about the loss of this insanely prolific writer. I heard Roth speak at 92Y in Brooklyn in 2014.

      Strange that he died of congestive heart failure. My cat has congestive heart failure.

      I want to read Portnoy's Complaint and Sabbath's Theater!

      Love this: “I don’t know yet what this will all add up to, and it no longer matters, because there’s no stopping."

      Way to go out with a bang. “The struggle with writing is done.”

    • jlcipriani5 years ago

      Clearly extraordinary output and outsized influence - I feel like I should get to know his books better, but I don't actually want to read them. I have the same itchy bemusement now I remember from reading Portnoy's Complaint 35 years ago. Roth seems so interested in himself that he feels like a closed set within which writer and reader must have the same mindset to be admitted to the club of mutual self-regard.

      • bill
        Top reader of all time
        5 years ago

        Hahaha. Wow. I love your comments so much. That last sentence is gold.

        • jlcipriani5 years ago

          Thanks, Bill - praise from Caesar is praise indeed

          • bill
            Top reader of all time
            5 years ago

            ;P You kill me.

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      5 years ago

      As a lover of literature, I'm shamed to admit that I haven't read a single thing by Roth. This obituary clarifies and quantifies (so many awards!!) his behemoth influence on the craft and, more broadly, American culture in general. I wish this obituary pushed deeper into Roth's inner life, although I suppose this isn't quite the time/place for that.

      It's finally time; I have to read Portnoy’s Complaint or American Pastoral - two books that have been on my "to read" list forever. (I also want to try "When She Was Good," because holy shit that title is amazing.)

      Is there anyone out there who doesn't like reading about "a place of middle-class pride, frugality, diligence and aspiration?" I certainly do. I think that my first interaction with real art was the film American Beauty, which came out in 1999 when I was 12 years old. I watched it a dozen times, in rapid succession, and remember feeling a deep and powerful sense of recognition - these were average people living average lives. The average street that they lived on looked just like the average street that I lived on. Yet buried within the normal was extraordinarily rich drama, passion, purpose and excitement.

      We all need to read a healthy dose of Willy Loman characters, to learn not only how to live, but also how not to live. It could make the world a better, more interesting place.