Philip Roth Unmasked (2013)

Philip Roth arguably Americas greatest living novelist turns 80 on March 19 In 1959 his collection of short stories Goodbye Columbus put him on the map and 10 years later his hilarious ribald bestseller Portnoys Complaint gave rise to the first of many Rothrelated controversies in which Judaism sex the role of women and the parentchild relationship would take center stage In candid interviews the Pulitzer Prizewinner discusses his distinctly unliterary upbringing in Newark NJ his admiration for Saul Bellow and Bernard Malamud and how Zuckerman may or may not be his alterego Nathan Englander Mia Farrow Jonathan Franzen and Martin Garbus are among those who talk about the man and his writing Franzen in particular praises Roth for how brave he must have been to have methodically offended everybody and to have exposed parts of himself no one had ever exposed before