Will Philip Roth be canceled? Late novelist once went looking for Chinese prostitutes in London while married
New biographies on Philip Roth, who is known for works such as 'Goodbye, Columbus', 'American Pastoral', 'The Human Stain' and more, sheds light on the novelist's alleged predatory behavior and obsession with sex. Roth, who is the recipient of the US National Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, and others, is the subject of two separate biographies that claim revelations of his real-life "sex and depravity" could ignite a reassessment of work and depictions of women. Roth passed away in 2018.
According to The Times of London, Ira Nadel, author of 'Philip Roth: A Counterlife', wrote that he was "as sexually obsessed in real life as he was in literature". The biography is set to release on March 29 and "offers a full account of his development as a writer," according to the publisher's notes on the book's Amazon page.
READ MORE
Winona Ryder says last few years under Trump have been 'a mind boggling-like nightmare'
Another biography, 'Philip Roth: The Biography', was written by Blake Bailey after Bailey received independence and complete access from Roth himself over his personal archives and features interviews with the author's friends and lovers. Bailey claims that Roth visited London brothels and chose female students to attend a seminar based on their attractiveness and flirts with younger women the older he gets, according to The Times.
Roth allegedly went looking for Chinese prostitutes on Curzon Street in Soho during a visit to London, while married, and had reportedly said, "God, I'm fond of adultery." Roth was married twice — his first marriage was to Margaret Martinson Williams, whom he met when he was 23 years old in 1956 and married her in 1959. Williams worked as a secretary at the University of Chicago and was the inspiration for some of Roth's female characters. Williams faked a pregnancy and abortion and separated from Roth in 1953, according to The Atlantic.
Williams withheld consent for divorce and later died in a car crash in Central Park in 1968.
Roth began living with English actress Claire Bloom ('A Streetcar Named Desire') in 1976. The pair got married in 1990 and divorced in 1994. In her memoir, 'Leaving a Doll's House', Bloom wrote of Roth as being controlling and that he scrutinized every decision she made. She also wrote of him as a self-centered misogynist and wrote that he was a man filled with "a deep and irrepressible rage" toward women. She also claimed that he forced her daughter from a previous marriage, Anna Steiger, to move out of the house because she "bored" him.
Roth, however, wrote a "point-by-point" rebuttal of Bloom's memoir, which is legally embargoed for several more years before it can be released, according to The Times. Nadel told the publication on this, "He could not stop litigating the past. He wanted to control the story from the grave." Nadel also said that Roth viewed Bloom as "the quintessential example of his betrayal by women."
Another writer, Sandra Newman, told The Times on Roth's work, "Looked at from the point of view today, the books are on the wrong side of MeToo. They often have a central male who is a victim of cancel culture." When asked if Roth could be canceled, she said, "You never know these days. But I think there will always be an audience for Roth's work in certain quarters, and a non-audience in others."
Roth's problematic behavior was written about in The New York Times in an article by novelist Dara Horn, who wrote, "Philip Roth is celebrated for bringing my family's tiny slice of the world into the American pantheon, widening the literary canon to include American Jews. It is hardly news to point out that he accomplished this feat at the expense of Jewish women."
She continued, "Roth's three favorite topics — Jews, women and New Jersey — all remain socially acceptable targets of irrational public mockery, and Roth was a virtuoso at mocking the combination of all three. Roth, who achieved true greatness in depicting people like himself, never had the imagination to give these women souls."