My Life as a Man (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Authors or writers, Marriage, Death or dying, Psychoanalysis or psychoanalysts
- Locales: New York
In My Life as a Man, Roth invents a fictitious character, Peter Tarnopol, whose life closely parallels his own, just as the life of Tarnopol's fictitious character, Nathan Zuckerman, closely parallels his. The result is what Roth calls a “useful fiction.” Such fictions help the writer explore alternative ideas of one's fate—in this instance, alternative versions of Roth's early years and particularly of his marriage to Margaret Martinson.
The novel begins with two such “useful fictions.” The first, “Salad Days,” recounts Zuckerman's early childhood, not...
[The entire page is 708 words long]
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