The Counterlife (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1986
- Type of Work: Novel
- 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, Newark, NJ, Israel, Gloucestershire, England
In The Counterlife, Roth more forthrightly and ingeniously than ever before exploits the technique of developing alternative versions of one's fate. Thus, in the first section, “Basel,” Henry Zuckerman, a successful dentist, husband, and father of three children, suffers from a serious heart ailment that is properly treated by use of a beta-blocker, which renders him impotent. Finding his sex life reduced to nothing and desperate to resume an extramarital affair with his dental assistant, he decides to undergo surgery, and dies. Before the surgery, feeling the need to talk...
[The entire page is 1050 words long]
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