It Was Never Likely That Roth Would Go Quietly

Just over one month ago, we surveyed the crowded landscape of Philip Roth biographies. I mentioned that Claudia Roth Pierpont (no relation) produced a fine literary biography a year or so ago, and that Professor Ira Nadel brought out a full-fledged biography in March. Then Benjamin Taylor, an old friend of Roth's, published his recollections of their friendship, and lastly and most significantly, Blake Bailey, Roth's ultimate authorized biographer--the first was fired by Roth and Nadel, always unauthorized, was sued by Roth--produced a 900-page volume. I bought Nadel's book because standing alone then in the bookstore, I assumed it was the major bio. It's not well-written.

Bailey's bio received excellent reviews from almost every critic until the New Republic published an attack predicated on accusations that Bailey, when teaching high school in New Orleans some years ago, had groomed female students to become sex partners when they reached the age of 18, and then looked them up. W. W. Norton, Bailey's publisher, proceeded to halt further printings and stop flogging the book. Bailey had made the rounds of major TV programs where authors are interviewed--I caught him on MSNBC's Morning Joe--and was now instantly persona non grata, the latest casualty of the cancel culture.

This morning Morning Joe had a discussion of the cause celebre, and it was finally acknowledged after one panelist claimed that Bailey's book was still readily available, that, in reality, Amazon had dropped it and the Kindle edition was no longer available. There was a good back-and-forth among a variety of panelists--Katty Kay of BBC, Ron Charles, book critic for the Washington Post, Matt Bai, a freelance journalist, and Judith Shulevitz, who authored the New Republic piece.

Not that a consensus ever emerged that resolves these kinds of conflicts, but the major part of the group seemed to coalesce on a conclusion that a publisher need not continue to promote a book by an author it no longer feels it can endorse but that in this instance, Norton ran away from Bailey before there had been any assessment of the evidence expected to be forthcoming from his accusers. 

It's not censorship because this is not an interdict imposed by the government. It reminded me of how the Democrats in the Senate did everything possible to force Al Franken to resign his Senate seat after a woman accused him years later of fondling her back when he was a comedian. Worse yet, there were allegations at the time that she was an operative of a right-wing group that specialized in setting up liberal political figures.Lastly, the Dems refused to wait for the results of the investigation that Franken had gone along with requesting.

It always seemed to reek of overreach and the traditional unwillingness of Democratic national administrations or Congressional Democrats to stand behind any of their members facing such accusations. The Republicans never surrender and the Trump persistence in denying the truth and the failed impeachment convictions attest to their steadforthness. Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand of New York was the leading voice demanding Franken's resignation. Franken now regrets that he folded.

Sentence first, trial later, as the Red Queen in Through the Looking-Glass proclaimed. Roth himself, now safely interred, was the target of renewed attacks for allegedly being a misogynist in his life and his fiction. Granted, positive female characters in Roth are few and far between. But I found it worth noting that one leading figure in one of his late short novels, Jamie Logan in Exit Ghost (2007), comes across as a strong woman who dominates her weak husband and is the object of Roth alter ego Nathan Zuckerman's ardor, admiring that quality. Unlike Lucy Nelson and Martha Regenhart in Roth's first two novels (Brenda Patimkin in Goodbye, Columbus, which is regarded as a novella rather than his first novel, also emerges as a less-than-positive character, as she joins Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby as one of the "careless people" who leave others to pick up the pieces. in this case, a wrecked courtship), Jamie is depicted as strong but not controlling.

I've started reading the Bailey book, Philip Roth: The Biography. I haven't gotten all that far along but I can say that it is very well-written, and takes advantage of the exclusive access Roth gave Bailey to his papers, archives, and other materials. I'm not going to trash it and I intend to savor it.