The Facts is subtitled ‘A Novelist’s Autobiography’. It opens with Roth writing a letter to his fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman. Even when he says he’s writing his biography, he can’t do it straight. As a nod to this, I’ve categorised The Facts in both the Fiction and Non-Fiction categories.
In The Facts, Roth covers the years leading up to the publication of Portnoy’s Complaint, including some scenes from his childhood and college years. The most compelling passages cover Roth’s first marriage, its breakdown and the death of his first wife, and his frank admission that he was glad she had died.
The Facts is less playful and certainly less innovative than Roth’s other works from the same period, and he can’t avoid playing coy with the truth/fiction divide even here. It’s Roth’s way of saying that whatever he writes is in some sense fictional, but that the truth of his life is substantially less interesting than the fictions he invents.
The book ends with Nathan Zuckerman’s reply to Roth. His advice? “Don’t publish – you are far better writing about me than ‘accurately’ reporting your own life.”
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