Roth after Eighty

Roth after Eighty offers a retrospective reading of the career and works of American author, Philip Roth. Drawing on eleven original essays from experts in the field of Roth studies from several national perspectives, this collection argues for a consideration of Roth’s “retirement” as another phase of his career.

This collection of new essays is a most fitting tribute to the 'end' of Philip Roth’s long and prolific career. The rich and varied approaches to Roth’s fiction contained in these pages reflect the enduring influence of one of the major voices of late twentieth-early twenty first century American life and thought. The essays artfully arranged in this volume seamlessly and gracefully paint a portrait of this ingeniously complex writer of our time.

Gooblar and Pozorski are among the most dedicated Roth scholars around right now, and they have put together a lively collection of frequently original essays, all of which demonstrate intimate understanding of Roth's body of work. Individually, the essays place specific novels and even whole phases of Roth's writing in a richly intellectual and critical context, and as a whole, the collection demonstrates how the greatest living American novelist can continue to inspire new and inventive readings from a worthy cohort of dedicated critics.

Roth after Eighty is an excellent contribution to Roth scholarship. In essays by a distinguished roster of Roth scholars, it explores new aspects of Roth's American literary imagination, while weaving in a healthy dose of comparative literature. Its purview is at once refreshingly local and robustly cosmopolitan.

David Gooblar is a lecturer in the Rhetoric Department at the University of Iowa.

Aimee Pozorski is professor of English and director of English Graduate Studies at Central Connecticut State University.