I Married a Communist

Roth's prose, moving slowly and heavily like a tanker, carried on board the weight of the whole world. It left no unilluminated corner of the most precious essence of his heroes and no unturned stone of the millstone of time that smiles on human destinies between the teeth of history.

Background: The development of the communist movement in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent "witch hunt for communists" initiated by McCarthy and Nixon.

The heroes: Ira "The Iron" Randle - a convinced communist and idealist who spent his youth as a stevedore in factories, in the mines of the South, on the docks in Iran, where he dedicated himself to the cause of the working class, and later was caught up in the wheel of history in high society as a famous radio actor, the husband of Hollywood actress Eve Frame, the woman who will betray him for the crime of "being a communist" and shatter his life.

Murray, Ira's brother - a high school English teacher, convinced that only education can change people's destinies, convinced of the power of personal dignity. The book begins with him, with his interrogation before the McCarthy Commission for "un-American activities". His appearance is supposed to be just a formality, but it turns into a long saga after he refuses to answer the question of whether he is a communist, not because he has sympathies for the party, quite the opposite, but because he believes that the most patriotic duty of an American is the freedom to exercise his political rights and beliefs without being subject to persecution. He is fired from the school where he teaches, branded as an enemy of the people and forced to sell vacuum cleaners in advance until he manages, after years of legal battles, to regain his position. "However hard it was for me, the situation was not total, the power was not totalitarian, I was not tortured, I had the opportunity to fight in court and I grew as a person, even if I was selling vacuum cleaners in Newark. That's why I'm proud to live in this country."

I love Roth's ability to describe the radicalization of the time he writes about - both here and in "American Pastoral". Roth tells with compassion even about the most fanatical idealists, although he does not spare their short-sightedness. There is only no sympathy for the fanatical opportunists, the people ready to trample on you to climb to a higher step.

"Look, everything the Communists say about capitalism is true, and everything the capitalists say about Communism is true. The difference is, our system works because it's based on the truth about people's selfishness, and theirs doesn't because it's based on a fairy tale about people's brotherhood. It's such a crazy fairy tale they've got to take people and put them in Siberia in order to get them to believe it."

I ceased reading Philip Roth during my teenage years, and I can now understand the reason. His writing is truly outstanding. However, the book leans heavily towards a male perspective. The central character is a teenage boy who shows a great deal of interest in what he deems as manly men. He looks up to big, strong, intelligent, and intellectual men as the ideals he aspires to become. In contrast, the female characters are rather poorly developed. I am awarding him three stars for his remarkable writing skills and his vivid portrayal of the Red Scare during the 1950s. Nevertheless, I don't envision myself picking up another one of his books in the near future.

Being the next Roth novel after American Pastoral, which was the first one I read and still my favorite, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It might be because the protagonist, Nathan Zuckerman, is around my current age. But I've always loved the conversational reminiscing between the nonagenarian teacher (Murray Ringold) and the student. The setting is Newark, Roth's home turf, where he re-creates a place and time through his art more meaningfully (to me) than any history book could. I try to explain to my friends that fiction is more "real" than history as it captures the true essence of mankind in his environment, going beyond mere facts and simple interviews. Usually, I don't convince them, but that's their loss.

This novel also describes what it's like to be American as a Jew, with the characters struggling to shed their immigrant roots and become assimilated. It's also a story of two brothers (I have three), where Murray advises and consults the younger Ira through his tribulations, ascent to fame, and inevitable catastrophe. Finally, it's about the McCarthy era in the 1950s, and it's the best expose I've read about how it played out and how it actually affected people's lives. Growing up largely after the red scare, I do recall its remnants as a child, and even today, I see the body politic still actively debating the Soviet experiment with communism and its stigma in the US.

What I found interesting is the reaction to the Soviets, which is more of a fear of oppression, and the dogma that Marxism leads to totalitarianism and loss of liberty is still strong. But I digress. Mainly, this is a tale about people, about what it's like to grow up without parents in 1950s urban America. The history and characters are richly detailed, and we have this special author who has gifted this to us forever. For me, one of Roth's most special talents is his ability to create authentic and deeply developed characters. His insights into human nature teach me about human beings in a way I wouldn't have otherwise conceived. He reveals the tragedy in a dramatic fashion, as we learn throughout the story in surprising and exciting ways. I've always enjoyed tragedy in literature as it helps me deal with it in life, and this book is the best of its kind.

«[...] My book of life is a book of voices. When I wonder how I got here where I am, the answer astonishes me: 'by listening carefully'.» This simple yet profound statement holds a world of meaning. The idea that our life's story can be written through the act of listening is truly remarkable. It implies that every voice we hear, every conversation we engage in, and every sound that reaches our ears has the potential to shape our journey. By listening carefully, we open ourselves up to new perspectives, learn from others' experiences, and gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. It is through this active listening that we can create a rich and meaningful narrative for our own lives. The book of our life becomes a compilation of all the voices that have touched us, inspired us, and guided us along the way.

In this second installment of the American Trilogy, Philip Roth presents himself as his alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, in this fictional biography of Ira Ringold. Ira, married to the sophisticated yet fading Hollywood star Eve Frame, had a diverse life. He was a ditchdigger in Newark in the 1930s, a stevedore, a star presenter of the radio show "The Free and the Brave" in the 1940s, and a devoted Stalinist in the McCarthy era of the 1950s after serving in World War II.

Ira's brother, Murray Ringold, is Nathan Zuckerman's ninety-year-old former high school teacher who visits Nathan in the Berkshire woods. Nathan, living alone, welcomes the company of the old gentleman.

Ira becomes the topic of their conversations, with Nathan as the observer, listening to Murray's retelling of his brother's life story. Nathan also reminisces about Ira, who was a father figure to the younger Nathan. The long-dead Ira Ringold constantly had to reinvent himself.

Ira's downfall occurred when his troubled wife published her autobiography, "I married a Communist," which was a scandalous bestseller that exposed and destroyed him.

The author also uses Nathan Zuckerman to express his own feelings about Claire Bloom's autobiography, "Leaving a Doll's House." The aftermath is filled with rage, ranting, and rifting, boiling over into revenge.

The novel is divided into sections presenting memories, digressions, and an analysis of the raw bitterness behind betrayal, counter-betrayal, and the interplay between anger and sanity. It is a war of emotions where revenge is a perpetual weapon and pure hatred is the high octane booster. An almost misogynistic melancholy befalls all women.

Murray Ringold, the Jewish war hero and intellectual, spends several days with Nathan, passionately explaining, clarifying, and trying to understand Ira's life. In monologues throughout the 326 pages of the book, Murray dissects Ira's life.

Ira Ringold was a bullish, rough-neck Jewish giant, an antihero in the Age of McCarthyism, and a victim of his own descent into insanity, disgrace, and ultimate demise.

The story is about anger, a challenging word dump of monologues and philosophical journeys through the optimism of youth, the pessimism of old age, and mortality.

The biographical fictional tale has Ira Ringold as a distant main character, with its actual purpose being a reaction to his ex-wife's allegations against him in her autobiography. It is a story within a story.

Eve's memoir depicts Ira as a Machiavellian Communist, a vicious man of enormous cunning who nearly ruined her life, career, and the life of her beloved child. Claire Bloom's memoir depicted Philip Roth in a similar light.

In this fictional biography, Philip Roth has the upper hand. Using his ex-wife as the tragic fictional character Eve, he portrays her as a zealot, a malicious, scheming woman, while he remains a manly giant in real life.

Ms. Bloom, on the other hand, writing her autobiography, feeds the real-life gossipmongers of the media. Philip Roth's real persona, however, remains gentlemanly intact, while destroying his ex-wife as a character in a novel.

Philip Roth is a highly accomplished author, winning numerous awards. For this common reader, it was an exhausting read, both emotionally and intellectually. The intense narrative left the spirit lifeless and destroyed.

It might be a brilliant piece of word art, but the moral behind this tragic life story is a killer. The epitaph on the poor soul's gravestone might read "What are you looking at!?" It took almost three months to get through this melodrama, which was brutal, brilliant, but enough.

The American Trilogy consists of "American Pastoral" #1, "I Married a Communist" #2, and "The Human Stain" #3.

As always, great Roth. Although it may not seem to me to be his best book, it is nevertheless brilliant. It contains a mini-essay of 3 or 4 pages on the differences between what creators - writers and I would say even good readers - seek in terms of the novel with respect to new creations (the novelty that we readers look for in readings), the nuance, as Roth calls it. And on the other hand, the common, globalizing idea without nuances or fissures that large groups of people around a political party, a club or a religion pretend. Impressive, impressively lucid. One has to find it in the text.

This exploration by Roth offers a fascinating perspective. It makes us think about how different our individual quests for novelty and depth are compared to the more homogenized ideals of larger groups. The way he dissects these differences is truly remarkable. It forces us to question our own reading preferences and how they align or diverge from the mainstream. Overall, this aspect of the book adds an extra layer of complexity and interest, making it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the intersection of literature, creativity, and social ideals.

There are numerous printing errors and mistakes. It's not clear if they are only in the electronic version of Fidibo that I've read or if the publisher Niloufar Shahkar has also made them. There are also issues like the misplacement in the mention of personalities, which is quite common and confusing.

In addition to these, Faridoun Majlesi, whose sensitive and intelligent translation I had read in another novel by Philip Roth, "Anger", in this novel, has given some sentences to the addressee that are strange, inappropriate, and sometimes without a verb, which is due to the length and verbosity of the sentence. Indeed, understanding some sentences took three or four readings. The long sentences, which sometimes can stretch to a paragraph of twelve lines, are the style of Philip Roth that Majlesi has taken on in the novel "Anger" but not in this one.

This is the best-selling novel of Philip Roth. It is the second novel of his trilogy. The first one is "American Pastoral" and the third one is "The Human Stain", and there are two translations of it, one of which is the work of Mr. Majlesi. The content of these three novels is about the lives of Americans after World War II in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, especially the Jews.

This novel is specifically about a low-wattage Jewish radio host named Ira Ringold with communist tendencies who was also a coal miner and has spent his entire life fighting loudly and angrily for the rights of workers. Eventually, he becomes a victim of the McCarthyite program to purge communist elements and is pushed aside by the famous Republican senator Joe McCarthy. A high school teacher and his student, when both are old, recall their memories of Ira, the teacher's brother, and Eve Frame, Ira's wife, who is a well-known actress. The book is very political and is a sharp and incisive critique of corrupt, reactionary, and lying conservative politicians who, in the atmosphere of threat and suspicion that emerged during the McCarthy era and the Cold War, were able to present themselves as patriotic and anti-Soviet and gain privileged political positions, which they achieved by ruining the lives of enlightened and independent-minded people. The characters in the story have tragic fates.

Apart from the printing and translation errors, the narrative of the book itself seemed long to me, as the stories in the memories of the narrators are constantly repeated and it no longer has much charm. I saw a kind of confusion in the narrative structure that makes the reader impatient and makes the book somewhat tedious. However, the attractiveness of the novel's story creates a lot of pull for continuing to read it.

Roth se ia la trântă cu ipocrizia, ca în toate romanele pe care i le-am citit.

În această carte, însă, ipocrizia ia de data asta chipul McCarthyismului și al „virtutilor” burgheze, vechi dușman al marelui Philip.

Dar Roth nu se oprește aici. El mai face ceva - și o face grozav de bine.

Scrie povestea formării unui bărbat, a „modelării” lui Nathan Zuckerman după mentorii pe care și-i alege, frații Ringold - Ira cel primitiv și intelectualul Murray.

De fapt, acești doi frați sunt două naturi la fel de intempestive, de pătimașe precum personajul peren al lui Roth.

Este drumul lui Nathan până la „acea stare de orfan absolut care este bărbăția”.

Roth ne prezintă într-un mod fascinant cum un tânăr se formează, se confruntă cu ipocriziile și cu adevărurile vieții, și încearcă să-și găsească propria identitate într-un univers plin de confuzii și de contradicții.

Cartea lui Roth este o analiză profundă a umanității și a societății, o încercare de a înțelege ce înseamnă să fim oameni și să trăim într-o lume în care ipocrizia și inechitatea sunt prezențe constante.