Word: nathan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Nathan--Alexander Portnoy disguised by a U. of Chicago education--arrives at the New England home of his aging mentor, newly popular short story writer E.I. Lonoff, whom he has never met. Here he embarks on an intellectual journey to discover both the mystery behind Lonoff's ghost-like absence from the "real world" and the secret to Lonoff's uncanny ability to characterize the Jewish anti-hero in his stories. Along the way, Nathan encounters Hope, Lonoff's lonely, bitter and jealous wife, and the enchanting Amy Bellette, his precocious and loving student...
...writer's self-sacrificial nature, insistent Jewish guilt, and sexual desire all torment Roth's hero, a young short story writer named Nathan Zuckerman. Nathan's dilemma concerns the purpose of his art: is his ultimate responsibility to himself or his Jewish heritage? Even the writer of the Bible must have paused to consider the personal and social consequences of his creation. In the end, Nathan, like Roth, chooses to write for himself and let the kleenex fall where they may. "There is obviously no simple way to be great," says Nathan...
With E.I. Lonoff, Roth brings to life a compelling and intricate character. Lonoff, in a self-destructive pursuit of the perfection of his art, exemplifies the life of a great writer for Nathan, for whom quelling desire in the interest of better art is a new phenomenon. "There is his religion of art, my young successor: rejecting life! Not living is what he makes his beautiful art out of," wails Hope...
...protagonist, Nathan reveals an even more intriguing mind. He is the young, modern Jew, acutely aware of the horror of the Holocaust yet eager to spare his writing any Jewish self-pity. His stories are icy, even mean, much to his parents' chagrin. Nathan's battle with his family over a story they deem insulting to Jews must echo a similar fight Roth himself waged with his relatives over Portnoy's Complaint...
Most of all, however, Nathan wants to be a great writer and The Ghost Writer reflects the intensity of his desire. It closely examines that desire, offering a stimulating tour of the maturing writer's mind, ground Roth knows only too well. His writing about writers stands unparalleled. In a perfectly turned monologue, Lonoff bitterly details the tedium of a writer...