La controvita is a novel of moving beauty and rare lucidity. It is a multiplier of narrative strategies that seem to operate automatically. At the end of the reading, there are no conclusions to be drawn, certainties to be refuted or rejected, but only questions that remain suspended and generate further interrogations.

What does La controvita talk about? Principally about identity. And saying it like this may seem like the discovery of hot water, as novels have been talking about this for two centuries. But here, identity and its search are a destructive virus that attacks every cell of the novel: both the form - what are the expectations that a writer and a reader have of a literary character? What is the level of frustration that can be reached when a sequence of facts is continuously stirred and put in contradiction without ever arriving at a single outcome? Why do we expect that an apparently realistic novel must progress from a beginning to an end through an ordered sequence of facts and formative passages when our lives are not at all like that? - and the content - can one really be secular and support one's religious identity as an imposition of history or as a label that others give us (and this holds true for Roth's Judaism as much as for "categories" that are not necessarily religious: a black writer, a feminist writer, etc.)? Is Israel a patch of land inhabited by sociopaths or a weight on the stomach that one continuously has to confront like a perpetually undigested meal? Is the only way to be a secular Jew to become an anti-Semite? Are sexual exuberance or "familial chastity" the only options?

Beyond my very banal summary, it must be said that La controvita is also an indispensable map for all the exegetes of the Rothian word. It is like a guidebook to the themes and characters of his work. In a possible museum dedicated to him, it would be the most important fossil, because it exactly photographs the transitional forms of his evolution. It is the exact moment of division between the angry, exaggerated, over-the-top Roth of Portnoy and the following works and the analytical, political, writer Roth of La Pastorale or La Macchia Umana. It is the moment of passage between the Zuckerman who has only one thing on his mind and the reflective, contemplative, almost voyeuristic Zuckerman. And it also tells us many things, finally, about why Roth is not Zuckerman and if he were, it would only be a deception, an extreme fiction. And for all these reasons, Einaudi is even more culpable for reprinting it after his father's death, chronologically out of step: how many more things we would have understood and enjoyed of La Pastorale or Sabbath. And finally, but this is my very personal speculation not supported by facts or supporting pieces, it is an excellent introductory book to his maximum text, to La Pastorale. The perfect off-balance structure of La controvita, the way it takes literary fiction to its most extreme consequences in such a blatant and uncovered way, makes us better understand that magnificent moment, the key moment, of La Pastorale, when during the party the music invades Zuckerman's head and he begins to speculate, to invent the story of the Swede's family (parenthetically, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of contemporary American literature, in a possible anthology of excerpts randomly taken from 20th-century American novels, it would have an honourable place), plunging us into an unexpected deception, into a cold-blooded murder of realism and our appetites for truth at all costs.

Idea recalls the literary genius of the great Llosa. It has a very interesting structure, but it is not completely engaging. It is weighed down by the complex Jewish element that is too present for me. It is a book to be read to appreciate the writer's mastery but not to be overly excited about.

The story seems to unfold in a rather convoluted manner, perhaps intentionally so, to mirror the complexity of the themes and characters. The use of the Jewish element adds an extra layer of depth and mystery, yet it also makes the narrative a bit harder to follow at times.

However, despite its flaws, there is no denying the talent and skill of the writer. The descriptions are vivid and the dialogue is engaging. It is clear that Llosa has a deep understanding of human nature and the power of storytelling.

Overall, Idea is a thought-provoking and well-written book that is worth reading for those who appreciate fine literature. While it may not be a page-turner, it offers a unique and rewarding reading experience.

Nathan Zuckerman is a remarkable character who features in ten of Philip Roth's thirty outstanding works of fiction. He serves as an alter ego of Roth's brilliant and limitless mind, playing a pivotal role in The Counterlife.

Zuckerman is a middle-aged Jewish writer who has achieved significant success with his literary works that often focus on exploring his Jewish identity and mortality in relation to the inevitability of physical deterioration.

In The Counterlife, Roth's literary genius is on full display as Zuckerman functions as a guise of himself through the impersonation of his brother. This scenario leaves readers wondering who the actual narrator is and what life-altering events have befallen which characters. The narrative, which combines dark comedy and solemn drama, begins with Nathan recounting his younger brother Henry's heart condition. At just thirty-nine, Henry faces a difficult choice: take medication that stabilizes his heart but affects his virility, or undergo a risky surgery that may improve his heart and solve his impotence but could cost him his life.

As the story progresses through each lengthy chapter, we see Henry abandon his family and move to Israel to support Zionism radically. Nathan travels to Israel to understand Henry's motives for reconnecting with his Jewish heritage. Then the story takes a twist, revealing that it is actually Nathan, now forty-six, who had the heart condition and decided on the surgery to have a child with his twenty-eight-year-old mistress. As the story unfolds, we are left to ponder who has the condition, who had surgery, who lived, and who died.

What is true? Who is impersonating whom? Among the characters, who has read which portions of the narrative that we, the readers, are reading? Roth presents unforgettable scenes throughout this captivating narrative, but he also ramps up the confessional monologues and the philosophical verbosity of the characters as they grapple with their conditions, circumstances, and choices. The Counterlife has exciting moments that drive the story forward, yet the entire novel does not progress linearly. Instead, it ebbs and flows, revealing and blurring the lines of what has happened to whom.

Roth is not simply trying to tease us by changing the scenarios and circumstances that impact the lives of Nathan and Henry. He is at his best when the novel delves into the delicate, tender, and complicated emotions involved in marriage and commitment. Roth is interested in the motives that drive decisions, especially those of the aging man in decline. He is fascinated by human vanity and religious heritage. Above all, Roth is a bold writer with a boundless imagination, pioneering new territory in his exploration of how life's joys and passions must confront the inevitable despair of facing one's mortality.

I approach Roth with a sense of discipline, ready to be immersed and overwhelmed by his unrelenting brilliance. Whether or not you feel like you're missing something due to his genius, you always take away a great deal. Roth can be difficult to quote because nearly every sentence is worthy of quoting, but the complexity of The Counterlife might be best summarized in a passage from its final pages: "If there even is a natural being, an irreducible self, it is rather small, I think, and may even be the root of all impersonation—the natural being may be the skill itself, the innate capacity to impersonate. I'm talking about recognizing that one is acutely a performer, rather than swallowing whole the guise of naturalness and pretending that it isn't a performance but you."