Philip Roth is one of my heros. All his life, he has been fighting bourgeois Jewish moral indignation. In doing so, he has shown the opinion-making pundits—many Rabbis, the Bnai Brith, the how-dare-you “spokesmen” such as Leon Weisenthaler and Norman Podhoretz, as well as a slew of Academic literary critics-- what it means to maintain a distance form orthodox opinions.
Note the Comment below: the use of "lib-rad" is like the "Jewish self-hater" label Roth fought in his time. There should be, as the writer states, movies and novels about the divisions among Jews. They won't by written or produced by those with slogans which divide up the world into the right-thinking and the dangerous (Roth had thought-out principles--which is why he was called a "misogynist" and a "traitor" ).
From the Goodby Columbus stories through Portnoy’s Complaint, he had the courage to reveal what really had happened to the Jewish Mother, the successful business- and law-school college grad, the “New York intellectuals” (who could not abide the 60s anti-war movement), and the young Jewish American woman who sought out what she guessed was the man who had his feet on the ground and could appreciate her needs, including her own professional life. What had become of the sons and daughters of immigrants who slaved so that their kids could enjoy The Golden Land? Read More
Note the Comment below: the use of "lib-rad" is like the "Jewish self-hater" label Roth fought in his time. There should be, as the writer states, movies and novels about the divisions among Jews. They won't by written or produced by those with slogans which divide up the world into the right-thinking and the dangerous (Roth had thought-out principles--which is why he was called a "misogynist" and a "traitor" ).
From the Goodby Columbus stories through Portnoy’s Complaint, he had the courage to reveal what really had happened to the Jewish Mother, the successful business- and law-school college grad, the “New York intellectuals” (who could not abide the 60s anti-war movement), and the young Jewish American woman who sought out what she guessed was the man who had his feet on the ground and could appreciate her needs, including her own professional life. What had become of the sons and daughters of immigrants who slaved so that their kids could enjoy The Golden Land? Read More