There's a Vacancy in the Pantheon of Great Active Writers

I’ve read numerous reports that Philip Roth has announced his retirement. Roth is 79 and he has been writing for as long as I can remember, so he has probably earned it. I can’t help but detect some bitterness in the reports, though. Roth’s name and the Nobel prize have been mentioned in the same sentence for some years now, but alas, he was passed over again this year. He just released a new novel last year, so he is still an active writer.

But now he says, that’s it.

I have to admit that my own Roth experience is limited. I read Goodbye, Columbus at least thirty-five years ago (it gave me some insight into a woman I had recently dated). I never got around to Portnoy’s Complaint, even though every other serious reader of my generation did read that novel.

I feel guilty, and I’m not even Jewish. I was raised Catholic, though, and Catholics have schools that teach guilt real well.

So now Philip Roth is on my list of novelists I need to read. So many novels, so little time.  

See ya’ later.

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