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    Zuckerman Unbound: A Novel
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    Zuckerman Unbound: A Novel
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    Zuckerman Unbound: A Novel
    Ebook200 pages5 hours

    Zuckerman Unbound: A Novel

    By Philip Roth

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Philip Roth's fictional alter-ego returns in Zuckerman Unbound, "...masterful, sure in every touch." (The New York Times)

    The sensationalizing sixties are coming to an end, and even writing a novel can make you a star. The writer Nathan Zuckerman publishes his fourth book, an aggressive, abrasive, and comically erotic novel entitled Carnovsky, and all at once he is on the cover of Life, one of the decade's most notorious celebrities.

    This is the same Nathan Zuckerman who in Philip Roth's much praised The Ghost Writer was the dedicated young apprentice drawing sustenance from the great books and the integrity of their authors. Now in his mid-thirties, Zuckerman, a would-be recluse despite his fame, ventures out on the streets of Manhattan, and not only is he assumed to be his own fictional satyr, Gilbert Carnovsky ("Hey, you do all that stuff in that book?"), but he also finds himself the target of admirers, admonishers, advisers, and would-be literary critics. The recent murders of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., lead an unsettled Nathan Zuckerman to wonder if "target" may be more than a figure of speech.

    Yet, streetcorner recognition and media notoriety are the least disturbing consequences of writing Carnovsky. Against his best interests, the newly renowned novelist retreats from his oldest friends, breaks his marriage to a virtuous woman, and damages, perhaps irreparably, his affectionate connection to his younger brother and his family. Even when finally he lives out the fantasies of his fans and enjoys an exhilarating night with the beautiful and worldly film star Caesara O'Shea (a rather more capable celebrity), he is dismayed the following morning by the caliber of the competition up in the erotic big leagues.

    In some of Zuckerman Unbound's funniest episodes Zuckerman endures the blandishments of another New Jersey boy who has briefly achieved his own moment of stardom. He is the broken and resentful fan Alvin Pepler, in the fifties a national celebrity on the TV quiz show "Smart Money." Thrust back into obscurity when headlined scandals forced the quiz show off the air, Pepler now attaches himself to Zuckerman and won't let go--an "Angel of Manic Delights" to the amused novelist (who momentarily sees him as his "pop self"), and yet also the likely source of a demonic threat.

    But the surprise that fate finally delivers is more devilish than any cooked up by Alvin Pepler, or even by Zuckerman's imagination. In the coronary-care unit of a Miami Hospital, Nathan's father bestows upon his older son not a blessing but what seems to be a curse. And, in an astonishingly bitter final turn, a confrontation with his brother opens the way for the novelist's deep and painful understanding of the deathblow that Carnovsky has dealt to his own past.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJul 2, 2013
    ISBN9781466846456
    Unavailable
    Zuckerman Unbound: A Novel
    Author

    Philip Roth

    PHILIP ROTH (1933–2018) won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral in 1997. In 1998 he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House and in 2002 the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, previously awarded to John Dos Passos, William Faulkner and Saul Bellow, among others. He twice won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2005 The Plot Against America received the Society of American Historians’ prize for “the outstanding historical novel on an American theme for 2003–2004” and the W.H. Smith Award for the Best Book of the Year, making Roth the first writer in the forty-six-year history of the prize to win it twice. In 2005 Roth became the third living American writer to have his works published in a comprehensive, definitive edition by the Library of America. In 2011 he received the National Humanities Medal at the White House, and was later named the fourth recipient of the Man Booker International Prize. In 2012 he won Spain’s highest honor, the Prince of Asturias Award, and in 2013 he received France’s highest honor, Commander of the Legion of Honor.

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    Reviews for Zuckerman Unbound

    3.5/5

    188 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm inclined to be tougher on Roth than almost every other author. My qualm with him is the inevitable loss of control that mars a section or chapter; a tirade that goes on too long, or an overweaning obsession with sex and self-described physical illness, for instances. That was was the case in this book too. And yet, there are sections and passages in Zuckerman Unbound that are fantastic, marvelous, laugh out loud funny, or strike a satisfying chord in the reader. I suspect I'll feel miserly in retrospect for not giving him a full five-star assessment.
    • 3/5
      I'm glad this was much better than The Ghost Writer, if only because it somewhat justified my having read The Ghost Writer. Zuckerman came off a little too good in GW, and here he's much fuller, the good and the bad. Still I have no idea why Roth is the Great American Novelist. Perhaps it's there in the books I haven't read, perhaps I'm just too sensitive to the whiny self-righteousness of The Human Stain and that's clouding my judgment. Or perhaps he's over-rated.
      I clearly have little to say about this book, except that the second half is much better than the first half, the clever clever bits are cleverer than they were in GW, and that still doesn't excuse shallow clever cleverness.
    • 4/5
      Zuckerman bound is a four-volume trilogy plus epilogue comprising The ghost writer, Zuckerman unbound, The anatomy lesson and epilogue The Prague Orgy. It is a series of novels describing the rise of a Jewish novelist who resembles Philip Roth. Identity, particularly Jewish identity is one of the main themes in Roth's work.I did not care much for The ghost writer which I read in 1996, and then abandoned the trilogy, but picking it up last November and reading Zuckerman unbound, I was gripped again as with many of his great novels.While The ghost writer describes the struggles of the young, beginning writer, both the struggles with identity and carving out a place as a writer, in Zuckerman unbound the main character Nathan Zuckerman achieves celebrity status. At this stage the theme of identity gains a new dimensions broadening into exploring private and public appearance, and shaping a new identity as a successful, rich author.
    • 3/5
      This book is basically a fictionalized version of Roth's life after he published the widely praised and popular book, Portnoy's Complaint. In Zuckerman Unbound, his alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, has just published a similar book. Zuckerman, like Roth, was completely unprepared for the celebrity and wealth he came into. He deals with the Jewish community's reaction to a book about a Jewish misanthrope, he gets death threats, his wife has left him and he can't go anywhere without being recognized -- and usually spat on. It was interesting to me because I know that all of these things actually happened to Roth. I liked getting some perspective into how the publication of Portony's Complaint changed his life and his writing.That said, it isn't the best of Roth's books and it felt more like something he felt he needed to write to make sense of what happened to him, as opposed to writing it for an audience. I would not recommend it to anyone who isn't already a Roth fan.
    • 2/5
      Funny parts are excellent, but too much soul-searching baggage
    • 3/5
      This is bad for Roth but good compared to other regular fiction. Being famous for writing something dirty, like Roth. Interesting.
    • 4/5
      Listened to tape. Wanted to read a Roth book. Was Ok but ending seemed to be abrupt.