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My Life as a Man
  
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My Life as a Man (Paperback)

by Philip Roth (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

A fiction-within-a-fiction, a labyrinthine edifice of funny, mournful, and harrowing meditations on the fatal impasse between a man and a woman, My Life as a Man is Roth's most blistering novel.

At its heart lies the marriage of Peter and Maureen Tarnopol, a gifted young writer and the woman who wants to be his muse but who instead is his nemesis. Their union is based on fraud and shored up by moral blackmail, but it is so perversely durable that, long after Maureen's death, Peter is still trying—and failing—to write his way free of it. Out of desperate inventions and cauterizing truths, acts of weakness, tenderheartedness, and shocking cruelty, Philip Roth creates a work worthy of Strindberg—a fierce tragedy of sexual need and blindness. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


From the Back Cover

"Roth's best.... No writer alive can sustain a full-length novel at as high a decibel level as Philip Roth." —Newsweek

"[My Life as a Man is] a scalding, unique addition to the lasting literature about men and women." —Newsday

"A very grand work...in invention, in perception...in coming to grips with the wild inconsistencies of life and art." —New York --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Genius, but very bitter, May 23 2002
By JC Haskell "jenandtodd@yahoo.com" (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: My Life as a Man (Paperback)
Much of Roth's later obsession with the boundaries between fiction and fact are evident in this book. FIrst we read two short stories--one funny, one more bitter, but both dark. Then we learn the two short stories are those of a struggling author who has fallen into the depths of depression after a difficult relationship. OF course the narrator pulls no punches--he is a hater of women, though I'm not sure that we are meant to take his view of the world as a given. Clearly he is messed up--even his psychologist thinks so, though the books also bashes the idea that a psychoanalyst is an impartial judge. This is fascinating, at times disturbing stuff, but well worth it. And I still love my wife.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Searing, bitter fiction based on Roth's first marriage., Mar 28 2002
By Augustus Caesar, Ph.D. (Eugene, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Life as a Man (Paperback)
Philip Roth's sixth novel, "My Life as a Man," first appeared in 1974, after the author spent several years trying to use the material of his first marriage (to one Margaret Martinson) in a fictionalized setting. Readers of Roth's autobiography, "The Facts" (1988), know that his brief cohabitation and extensive legal battles with Martinson were harrowing enough to leave psychological wounds the author continued to lick for decades following her death in a car accident. "My Life as a Man," according to "The Facts," was a book that took an enormous toll, both artistic and emotional, on the author. But it's a good thing he was able to write it, because what we have is a tremendously gripping, chilling, bitter and often hilarious look at the dark side of "romantic" relationships.

The first section of the book, entitled "Useful Fictions," includes two stories "by Tarnopol" documenting his carefree childhood and eventual entanglement with the psychopathic "Lydia." Then the novel itself starts, under the title "My True Story." What follows is enough to make anyone feel fortunate for a) being single or b) having a stable relationship. Martinson, who was "Lydia" in the first section, is here renamed "Maureen," and is one of the most unforgettable women in American literature. Self-loathing, neurotic, violent, manic-depressive, grasping, hateful and literally insane, her relentless attempts to control and keep "Tarnopol" (Roth) are what gives these pages such intensity. Her hatred for Tarnopol and his hatred for her make this book unputdownable. Reading "The Facts," one learns that much, if not most, of what occurs here actually took place in real life. No wonder Roth has "women issues" (or so the critics always say).

This remains one of Roth's most intelligent, finely crafted books. His use of dialogue is virtually unparalleled in modern fiction, and his sentences are as chiselled and graceful as one would expect of an artist of his caliber. In short, "My Life as a Man," though not the most uplifting book of our time, is an extraordinary (and extraordinarily bleak) accomplishment.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Men are from Mars, Women are from Hell?, Feb 16 2001
By "julies_27" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Life as a Man (Paperback)
This guy I was interested in had told me that this was one of his favorite books and better at describing his life as a Jewish man than Portnoy's Complaint. Now, I had read Portnoy's Complaint in college, thought it was funny, touching, but it definitely had moments of misogyny. My Life As A Man, however, seems mostly sad with more unrealistic portraits of women. Obviously, I don't know Philip Roth personally, so it's not for me to say if it's autobiographical or not, but there is a lot of pain that comes from male-female relationships gone wrong in this text. The women in the book are crazy, neurotic "shiksas" who go out of their way to drive Peter Tarnapol to a breakdown. On one hand, Peter has his lying, manipulative wife, and the other, his neurotic, needy girlfriend. I always feel that Roth's female characters do not represent real women, and although I dislike labels, I put this book down when done and thought "what a bunch of misogynistic crap." A good study of dysfunctional relationships, but I don't feel like Peter ever really reaches into his soul to figure out why he gets involved with the wrong women. Obviously not something to structure your life around, nevertheless, this book was a interesting read. Roth has an excellent command of the English language.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars vintage roth
I promise to keep this review short because I know there is nothing more unpleasant than a long review...did he like, or not like the book?.... Read more
Published on Feb 28 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside of an abusive relationship
I really hate those reviews that say "if a man wrote this..." or "if you said the same thing about Jews, Catholics, etc." So I won't say that. Read more
Published on Sep 25 2000 by Tim Lieder

4.0 out of 5 stars Unsparing, ambitious, funny but also bitter and obsessive.
Roth's considerable abilities are clearly in evidence here: narrative force; powerful intelligence; an unblinking examination of the human heart and mind; an unsparing honesty... Read more
Published on Oct 25 1999

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