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";s:4:"text";s:16606:"See guidelines for writing about novels. How do you process a big, bombastic, messy book like this? This novel also describes what is like to be American, as a Jew, where the characters struggle to shake off their immigrant roots and become assimilated. "), a great contemporary novel. The book is firmly rooted in history, and even though it is not essential to *know* the time period, a bit of background knowledge on the McCarthy era especially goes a long way in enriching an already intense and turbulent story. Perhaps he wanted to instill it with that sort of madcap, naive-yet-slick-bustling-postwar-New York City air so prevalent in Hollywood movies of the 1940s. The prose is brave, with scattered funny episodes, ("She married me to carry her daughter's harp! Web posted on: Tuesday, September 29, 1998 4:31:16 PMEDT Yet I loved the characterisation of Hollywood starlet and radio star Eve Frame. I Married a Communist (1949) I Married a Communist, later released as The Woman on Pier 13, is an American motion picture, directed by Robert Stevenson and released in 1949. The setting is Newark, Roth’s home turf, where he re-creates a place and time through his art that is more meaningful (to me) than any history book. It probably helps that the protagonist, Nathan Zuckerman, is about my current age. I will not go into the story details in order to avoid spoilers but I will say the following: This is not Philip Roth’s best book. He reveals the tragedy in dramatic fashion, as we learn throughout the story, in surprising and exciting ways. On the surface, a scant plot: Ira Ringold's wife, Eve Frame, outs him as a Communist in a tawdry memoir. I Married A Communist demonstrates the means by which informative aspects of the historical novel can function to enhance the fictionalized aspects. 'I Married a Communist' is a challenging read ... in a good way. ), I Married a Communist (Complete Nathan Zuckerman #7/The American Trilogy, #2). Excellent. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Rewarding? That said, it has a strange mixture of narrative hand-holding (atypical in the Zuckerman books) and ranting RE: communism that makes it hard to completely endorse it. Word Count: 261. I think this book is overlooked to some extent, it has, I think, the most emotional and earnest Zuckerman yet, and when the engine of the plot finally kicks in with about 50 pages to go it gets very good. 'I Married a Communist' by Philip Roth Houghton Mifflin. Roth's political writing has never been sharper, but the intimate scenes fall flat and the family drama is often unintentionally funny. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. Publisher: Phoenix Books, Inc. I Married a Communist charts the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, an American roughneck who begins life as a ditchdigger in 1930s New Jersey, becoming a big-time radio hotshot in the 1940s. The difference is, our system works because it's based on the truth about people's selfishness, and theirs doesn't because it's based on a fairy tale about people's brotherhood. It is more like three books with the same theme. Robert Ryan played a businessman being blackmailed by members of the Communist Party, who threaten to expose his earlier involvement with the group if he fails to help them; Laraine Day was… OTHER BOOKS. In this second book in the the American Trilogy, the author Philip Roth is present as his alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, in this fictional biography of Ira Ringold, husband to a sophisticated but fading Hollywood star, Eve Frame. Of course it should not be too surprising to find out that your life story has included an event, something important, that you have known nothing about--your life story is in and of itself something that you know very little about. One does not build on the other. It's been a Read with Jenna... To see what your friends thought of this book, No. This article about a 1990s novel is a stub. She destroys Ira's career (unintentionally) after being manipulated by his enemy, Brydon Grant. Two narrators guide us: the perennial Roth persona, Nathan Zuckerman, and his old high school English teacher and first mentor, Murray Ringold. by Vintage. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Do you need to read this trilogy in order? It probably helps that the protagonist, Nathan Zuckerman, is about my current age. The story is plotted out in a non-linear fashion, which really forces the reader to stay focused, especially when it comes to the multiple layers of characterization of different characters. The result? Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read I Married a Communist. The incredible power of that book was missing from this one. He is reliable, self-confident and above all, idealistic. No. Ira tells the daughter to move out, Roth did the same. I Married a Communist is the story of the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, a big American roughneck who begins life as a teenage ditch-digger in 1930s Newark, becomes a big-time 1940s radio star, and is destroyed, as both a performer and … I try to explain to my fri. But the book is worth it just for the scene where the daughter of the best-selling bodice-ripping author reads aloud a passage from her mother's latest bonkbuster, loosely based on the story of Abelard and Heloise. Maybe retrospect will make me feel more kindly toward this one: from the description of Nixon's funeral on into the end, Roth touches on an energy, a tension, an uncertainty that everything that came before came up short in. 323 pagina’s. “As an artist the nuance is your task. Review by By Scott McLemee www.salonmagazine.com. Linda Grant writes of the similarities between Claire Bloom and Eve Frame: Frame is a Jewish actress, so is Bloom. The setting is Newark, Roth’s home turf, where he re-creates a place and time through his art that is more meaningful (to me) than any history book. A high 3, could have been a 4 if it had been culled just a touch - there's a tendency toward repetitiveness here that can get frustrating. Great depiction of the era of McCarthyism, the narration is put forward by two unforgettable characters, Ira's brother (and protector) and his pupil who befriended Ira while a teenager and, of course, admired him as a god. By Philip Roth. I think this book is overlooked to some extent, it has, I think, the most emotional and earnest Zuckerman yet, and when the engine of the plot finally kicks in with about 50 pages to go it gets very good. The story is plotted out in a non-linear fashion, which really forces the reader to stay focused, especially when it comes to the multiple layers of characterization of different characters. I liked this the least of them and, in fact, I think I liked it the least of all Roth's novels that I've read, although it's hard to compare works read fifty years ago. Roth's old alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, narrates the story of Ira Ringold, aka Iron Rinn, a supremely idealistic political radical and celebrated radio star of the 1950s who is blacklisted and brought to ruin when his wife, Eva Frame (a self-hating Jewish actress born Chava Fromkin), writes an expose called I Married A Communist. 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