I Married a Communist

Rating:
Summary: The Zuckerman Project II--A Superb New Novel
Review: "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." In many respects, the two most recent novels of Philip Roth represent a long meditation on Tolstoi's famous observation and suggest a common wellspring of the unhappy family narratives. Roth goes as far as to put Tolstoi's words into the mouth of Murray Ringold, the high school English teacher who taught Roth's alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, the virtues of "cri-ti-cal thinking" and who, near the end of his life some fifty years later, unfolds the fate of his brother Ira, the radio personality "Iron Rinn" and young Nathan's boyhood mentor. Forget what you have read about I Married a Communist as Roth's roman a clef payback for Claire Bloom's recent memoire of her difficult life with the novelist. It is much, much more and is of a thematic and emotional fabric with Roth's great American Pastoral. Roth's project, of which this is the second installment, now seems to be "Nathan Zuckerman's America," thickly textured stories of lives collectively deranged and rendered dysfunctional by America and its political demons, now the MacCarthy era, Red-hunting, and the blacklist. Along the way we have countless carefully observed digressions on, among other things, taxidermy, how to make "literature," New Jersey's geology, the power of "the word," the triumph of lowbrow, and (of course) Newark in the 'forties and 'fifties. One remains in awe of Roth's undiminished ability to mine his own experience, augmented by prodigious research, to turn out superb, universal novels like I Married a Communist. Is he our greatest novelist? Consider the oeuvre--Portnoy, The Zuckerman tetralogy (which includes the magical The Ghost Writer), The Counterlife, Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, and now this--and compare his accomplishment to that of any living American writer. It isn't even close.

Rating:
Summary: Shakespearean
Review: "I Married a Communist" feels much like Roth's other recent novels (Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, The Human Stain). Indeed, each is a classic tragedy (think King Lear), with the life of the protagonist unraveling because of poor personal choices, conventionality, or unmet fears. Certainly, all of these books are brilliant and totally absorbing. But, in a literary way, the story in each is, basically, the torture of the main character. Here is some of my marginalia for "I Married a Communist", where poor Ira Ringold is destroyed: "We've heard Ira's rhetoric before. Yes, it conveys his state of mind. But what about the reader?" "Helgi is over the top. But this could happen." "In her rage, Eve totally misunderstands Ira." "Poor Ira. Even the nobodies he has befriended betray him." "Roth is unrelenting."

Rating:
Summary: art imitates life
Review: "I Married a Communist" is the vengeful roman-a-clef response to Clair Bloom's reportedly harse memoir of her marriage to the author, Philip Roth. The story is of a man blacklisted during the McCarthy era as the result of both his politics and the betrayal of his shallow, selfish actress wife. A wife whose adult, musician daughter (by a previous marriage) dominates her life to the exclusion of her husband, a wife who fears a physical relationship with her husband to the point of aborting their unborn baby, a wife who exposes her husband as a communist to save her daughter's career. Based on my web research, all these elements seem to parallel events related to the Roth-Bloom marriage and its aftermath. The theme of betrayal and revenge is driven powerfully by Roth's personal experience.

This is unfortunate because Mr Roth has such wonderful talent and the machinations of the McCarthy era, its effects on people and its legacy is a story worth telling. Perhaps this could be that story, but I found it impossible to separate the historically truth from what was molded to fit Roth's underlying purpose.

Within this thematic framework, Mr. Roth has portrayed himself as two characters: the brothers Ira and Murray Ringold. Ira -- a working class radio actor -- embodies emotion, impulsiveness, anger and love. While Murray -- an English teacher -- embodies reason, intellect and rationality. Combine those traits (drama, emotion, good grammer, reason) and you'll get a writer.

In this respect the novel is a confessional: Ira's emotional outbursts portray Roth's shame over his own passions. Murray, looking back, understands and explains where things went wrong, how pain could have been avoided and lessons we all (he's a teacher, after all) should learn.

I listened to the unabridged audiobook version of "I Married a Communist". Ron Silver did a very nice job differentiating the characters through inflection, accents and similar narrative techniques. Surprisingly the publisher did not edit or re-take a few fumbles during recording which I found distracting. I suppose there's irony to an audio performance about a radio actor who falls from grace. Mr. Silver: If have any minerals to sell, just let me know.

Rating:
Summary: Whether you're a Roth fan or not, you won't be disappointed.
Review: A big brassy book about a big brassy man. Roth explores the insidious horror of the McCarthy era without flinching. He also has no problem discussing the shallowness of the idealogies of the time, whether right or left. In this book, many of the characters are caught up in the winds of an era rather that thinking for themselves or examining 'truth'. Isn't this the way in most eras? Sometimes I wasn't sure whether to laugh or take Mr. Roth's words as intense and literal. That's part of the joy of the read. The reader can be as irreverant as he, or not.

Rating:
Summary: Roth humanizes the tough historical subjects
Review: I admire writers who can take controversial historical and political issues and turn them into human dramas -- giving readers a sense of what made them controversial in the first place.

Roth's recent novels may be tough, sometimes angry, in tone, but they show the mark of a master craftsman and the wisdom of a mature artist. "I Married a Communist" tells only one story about postwar radicalism, but it illumines the issue and helps put a human face on it. This book should be on American history reading lists for high school & college kids who don't get what the McCarthy era was about.

By the way -- why do people care that Roth may have used some of this story to settle a score with his ex-wife? I find the book compelling and realistic. I'm not going to censor my enjoyment by condemning the author as a "naughty boy." This gives me no particular pleasure. Of course, if it gives you pleasure you might want to read "The Human Stain..."

Rating:
Summary: Nevertheless, something is missing....
Review: I became a Roth fan when I read _The Human Stain_ a couple of months ago, and I have no reason to alter my judgment after having read "I married a communist". Only, I believe that, when Human Stain was High Tragedy through and through, as Roth takes his "hero"'s Coleman Solk's predicament very seriously, in "I married..." he tends to treat his anti-hero Ira Ringold's plight, this time, with an almost impreceptible farcical streak, a kind of lack of empathy that makes Roth's alter ego Zuckermann behave somewhat as a moralist aggrieved at the sinful humanity and its illusions. Of course, Ira is the kind of Stalinist windbag stalwart parading as a man of steel but also chasing at high bourgeois females, etc., etc.,that was regretfully far too common during the 1950s (and not only in the US) but then, his illusions (or should I say delusions?) are the delusions of many a leftist in his timeframe, and Roth's/Zuckerman's judgamental stance towards him does little in the way of making himself credible or, above all, understanable - an stance a serious writer should take towards _all_ his characters. Sometimes we have too much of Roth the accomplished aesthete passing judment of Mankind's political follies, and far too little of the narrator who takes as his point of departure Nietzsche's "Human, all too Human" tag.

Rating:
Summary: If you don't like him...don't read him!
Review: I feel like writing fifty reviews with fifty different user names just so I could get the average rating above three stars. The fact that this book does about as well or even worse than the average Grisham novel (yes, I checked) is absolutely criminal. Look, Roth does have a certain style that many people may find a little dry or long-winded or meandering, but if you don't like it, nobody's making you read the book!! (Unless you're from a really fascist book club) I don't like Dickens' style of writing but I'm not going to go and give A Tale of Two Cities two stars just because it's not for me. And enough with the judging of books based on the criteria they set out for you in your two week community college writing course. Not everybody has to write the same way. All you people are doing everyone a disservice by turning off what could be potential Roth readers with your weak reviews.

Anyway, this is another great effort by Roth. Those of you who liked American Pastoral may find that you like this one even better. Or you might not. The story ties up very nicely in the end. Roth even throws in a few suprises, something that he doesn't do every time out. If you like Roth then you will like this book, simple as that. And if you don't like Roth, maybe you should broaden your horizons a bit and realize that not every book is going to be written exactly the way you think it should be. Maybe the man is something of a genius, and you might just learn something if you give him a chance. That's all.

Rating:
Summary: Roth in his master mode
Review: I Married a Communist is a brilliant novel, one of few recent novels I've read through nonstop for a long time. It combines pathos and humor in laying bare a variety of important topics:both the well-intentioned but foolish Marxism and the evil witch-hunting manias of the 1950s, anti-Semitism and the integration of Jews into American life, issues of betrayal and loss, the decline of Newark, the inspiration of a good teacher. Yes, it's partly autobiographical. But the betrayed hero, Ira Ringold, who represents Roth at least in part, is part admirable giant/ part obsessive creep.
The book is curious in having two levels of narration. The first is Roth's quasi-alter-ego the novelist Zuckerman, and in part this is Zuckerman's bildungsroman from the Newark classroom to the fantasies of international socialism to the University of Chicago. For Zuckerman Ira was an almost irresistible mentor, as was his brother, the teacher who inspired him to become a writer. That brother, Murray, is the second narrator, filling in Zuckerman on the parts of the story he missed, either because he was too young to understand at that time or because he separated from Ira and only heard of his end second-hand. The interplay between these two narrators, looking back over some 45 years is subtle and crafty, and the book easily moves from one consciousness to another. Murray in particular is a brlliant character: a Jewish war hero (WW II); a stimulating Socratic high school English teacher who makes Shakespeare live for his students; a union organizer who fights a witch hunt-based job dismissal and triumphs years later; a loving father, husband, and brother; and at the end a clear-minded 90-year old survivor. He feels betrayed by the teaching union he helpedestablish, betrayed by the failure of the city he grew up in.
Both narrators puzzle over the meteoric rise and unaccountable marriage of Ira to a famous radio actress, a beauty with a secret Jewish past. His betrayal of her is sexual. Her big betrayal is a ghost- written book with the same title as the novel, a denuncaition of her husband, who is a naive, forceful, sometimes bullying Marxist. The book catches wonderfully the feel of the 50s, from a moral, cultural, and political view.
All the major characters are given full, multi-dimensional characterization, even the wife. There's lot of humor, and lots of subtle reflection as well.
One other note: Dickens had London, Balzac had Paris, and Roth has North Jersey. This novel combined with American Pastoral paints a deep (and sad) landscape of Newark and its environs. The decline and fall of Roth's native Newark is a moving background to the main action of both books.

Rating:
Summary: Polemic, the 1950's and the loss of trust
Review: My interest waxed and waned whilst reading this novel which I would describe as a novel of ideas rather than one driven by the interest one has in the fortune of the characters. I did not find it near as enthralling as American Pastoral. It is generally pretty coruscating about all the characters, their motives, delusions, illusions, - but some of its set pieces are rivetting stuff including Nathan's teacher Leo's defence of literature (p218) And the summation of the antagonism between communism (read "politics) and literature (p.223). Because it is a novel of ideas, that makes it to me, an example of what the novel is railing against - the absence of thought in media generally or as the narrator Uncle Murray tells Nathan "American unthinking that is now everywhere."(p284). Don't not read it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not what you expect
Review: Popular reviews of this book focus primarily on it's setting - the McCarthy era. But really this book is about the McCarthy Era the way that Shakespere's Henry V is about the Battle of Agincourt - kind of but not really.

What makes this book compelling is the sloppiness of the characters - Roth does not attempt to make people who fit into his setting, he makes real people with personal issues that have as much if not more to do with their situation in life than their surroundings - Ira Ringold is a classic example of this.

This is a book about finding mentors in life, about committment to a cause vs. committment to relationships, about human frailty and, yes, about the McCarty era - but again only partly.

This is not an easy read but it is worthwhile.