The Counterlife (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1986
- Type of Plot: Metafictional
- Time of Work: 1978
- Setting: New York, New Jersey, Israel, and London
- Principal Characters: Nathan Zuckerman, Henry Zuckerman, Carol Zuckerman, Maria, Maria Freshfield
- Genres: Long fiction, Metafiction
- Subjects: 1970’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Authors or writers, New York City, Writing, Jews or Jewish life, Storytelling, London, Israel or Israelis, Judaism, Jews and Gentiles
- Locales: New York, NY, London, England, New Jersey, Israel
The Novel
The Counterlife continues the saga of Roth’s alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, who has appeared in a number of the author’s books over a two-decade period. The Counterlife is a highly speculative and highly playful work in the form of a novel in progress about the possibilities and hazards of fiction writing.
Asked why she enjoys Jane Austen’s work so much, one of Roth’s characters, a very proper Englishwoman, replies, “She simply records life truthfully, and what she has to say about life is very profound. She amuses me so much. The...
[The entire page is 2973 words long]
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