Word: nathanisms
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...what a clever idea for a novel. In Zuckerman Unbound, a sequel to The Ghost Writer, Newark-born Nathan Zuckerman has made a million dollars with Carnovsky, an ethnic and sexual extravaganza that resembles Portnoy's Complaint. Zuckerman's problem is not sex but a reluctance to indulge in the conventional rewards of his money and fame. Says André Schevitz, his agent: "First you lock yourself away in order to stir up your imagination, now you lock yourself away because you've stirred up theirs...
...situation. Whenever Nathan goes out, he is reminded that "life has its own flippant ideas about how to handle serious fellows like Zuckerman." The statement is a blueprint for the novel, a string of introspections and encounters designed to mock Nathan's austerity and high artistic purpose...
Nevertheless, everyone wants famous Nathan to do the right thing. A stranger on a bus is disappointed to see him on public transportation and suggests buying a helicopter to "fly straight over the dog-poop." He is urged to invest his money elsewhere than in his shoe, dress more expensively and circulate with other celebrities. The result is Zuckerman in nighttown with a glamorous Irish actress named Caesara O'Shea who reads Kierkegaard and disappears in the morning to continue her top-secret affair with Fidel Castro...
...show during the '50s. Pepler's problem: he was dumped from the show when he wouldn't take a dive. He now wants Zuckerman to help publish his book about the scandal. In addition to this pathetic pest, there is a blackmailer who grows indignant when Nathan refuses to pay $50,000 to prevent the kidnaping of his mother: "Don't get high and mighty with me," says the caller. "Because if it was my mother, let me tell you, there wouldn't be that much to debate about. I'd act, and fast...
Like the end of Portnoy's Complaint, the conclusion of Zuckerman Unbound suggests a new beginning. Nathan even shows his impatience when he says, "Being a poor misunderstood millionaire is not really a topic that intelligent people can discuss for very long." As a sturdy vehicle for Roth's comic genius, Zuckerman may show up again: Will he travel to Prague and discover Franz Kafka as an aged steam-bath attendant? Will he beget children who grow up to be literary critics? Will he win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction and have to return it when everything...