The Facts (Masterplots II: Nonfiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- Time of Work: The 1930’s to the 1970’s
- Setting: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Chicago, New York, and Massachusetts
- Principal Characters: Philip Roth, Herman Roth, Bob and Charlotte Maurer, Polly Bates, Josie, May Aldridge
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Memory, Love or romance, Writing, Jews or Jewish life, Anti-Semitism
- Locales: New York, Chicago, IL, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey
Form and Content
Though subtitled A Novelist’s Autobiography, The Facts does not attempt a complete chronology of Philip Roth’s works and days. Instead, it is a series of five retrospective sketches, each connected to a crucial stage in the growth of a well-known Jewish-American novelist. Roth begins with an account of his stable childhood in a lower-middle-class Newark, New Jersey, neighborhood where almost everyone was Jewish and his principal interest was baseball. His father, a sedulous insurance salesman denied advancement because of his company’s...
[The entire page is 2223 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
