A young novelist's obsession with proving his manhood is transferred to his fiction and echoed in his tempestuous marriage
Philip Roth's fiction has often come very close to fact, and in MY LIFE AS A MAN (1974), his sixth novel (and first post-PORTNOY), he gives us Peter Tarnopol, a rising young writer whose many resemblances to Roth are blatant and whose story recalls Roth's first brief disastrous marriage to a woman who, soon after their divorce, was killed in a car crash. In the novel, Tarnopol is involved in a chillingly cruel and destructive marriage with a woman named Maureen. Even after her death, their relationship obsesses and depresses him, and he is driven to consulting a psychiatrist, Dr. Spielvogel (who was also Portnoy's doctor). MY LIFE AS A MAN includes two autobiographical short stories, ostensibly by Tarnopol, before the novel itself begins--one about his childhood, one about a destructive woman in his life who, in the succeeding novel, morphs into the evil Maureen. This novel has contributed hugely to the popular perception of Roth as a misogynist. It is also, like most of Roth's fiction, hilarious, often true, and definitely a page-turner.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres, Fiction + Literature Themes
- Subgenre: Literary, Literary Genres + Types of Novels, General, Humorous Fiction, Types of Characters, Family + Friendship, Love + Relationships + Sex, Arts + Entertainment
- Publisher: Vintage Books
- Edition: Reissue
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: September 1, 1993
- Date Published: September 1, 1993
- Author: Philip Roth