26 Books

The Prague Orgy is a ‘epilogue’ to the trilogy of Zuckerman novels that precede it: The Ghost Writer, Zuckerman Unbound and The Anatomy Lesson. Together, they form a volume that Roth called Zuckerman Bound.

Philip Roth

Ross Miller (Editor)
Library of America 2007, Hardcover, 700 pages, £22.60

This is a comparatively short book – some 60 or so pages – and deals with Roth’s attempts to track down an unpublished manuscript by a Yiddish author in Czechoslovakia. Roth was helpful to a number of Czech writers, visiting a number of times before he was banned from the country, so we can assume that his picture from behind the Iron Curtain is accurate.

For me this is the least successful Zuckerman book – one can’t say novel – that I’ve read, but it’s still entertaining even if it feels somewhat dated now. The wonderful Library of America edition also contains the curiosity of an adaptation for TV made by Roth himself.

Possibly related posts:

1. The Facts by Philip Roth (James’s book 56, 2009)
2. The Counterlife by Philip Roth (James’s book 54, 2009)
3. The Humbling by Philip Roth (James’s book 26, 2009)
4. The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov (James’s book 41, 2009)