I Married a Communist: American Trilogy (2)

Noting the lukewarm reviews for this book, it must been noted the high standard Philip Roth's works are held in comparison. With this in mind, I feel that "I Married a Communist" ranks in the upper echelon of Roth's works. Had I not read so many of his other books previously, I may not have been able to appreciate this book and its coarse context. It was a daunting task to attempt such a novel which produced a commendable result. The title "I Married a Communist" is derived from "tell all" book penned from the perspective of the wife of Ira "Iron Rinn" Ringold. The story of Iron Rinn is told by his brother Murray to Nathan Zuckerman, who is somewhat of an adopted son to Iron Rinn. Like many of Roth's characters, Iron Rinn searches for a sense of self that eludes him. Though communism maintains a sense of focus, he diverts onto other paths which lead away from his social commitments. The most notable diversion is the marriage to Eve Frame. With this marriage comes Frame's manipulative Eve's daughter Sylphid. Sylphid seemingly only serve the purpose of ruining things for her mother including her marriage. The marital situation is a veiled reference to Roth's first marriage that is disguised by some of the other plots in the book. Roth mixes in social and politcal opinions throughout the book, and even proves to be enlightening with some of the facts that mixed into this work of fiction. On a personal level, I enjoyed reading parts of the story that ventured into Northwest Indiana. Having grown up in that area, I feel that Roth captured the essence of the region in those passages. Even his physical descriptions were impeccable. Roth's novels are paced like a freight train that is gaining more speed, running further away from the means of control. It is obvious that the main character is headed for a crash, yet the reader is still anxious to see how it all falls apart. With so main weighted themes in "I Married a Communist", the crash is not a let down.

This is a big brassy book about a big brassy man. Roth explores the insidious horror of the McCarthy era without flinching. He also has no problem discussing the shallowness of the time, whether one leans politically to the right or left. Many of the book's characters are caught up in the winds of an era rather than being self-thinkers and examining their own core values and external truths. Isn't this the way in most eras? Sometimes, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or take Mr.Roth's words as literal. That's part of the joy of reading this book. The reader can be as irreverent as he or she chooses, or not!

I had read about the "revenge" factor in this Roth novel and perhaps because I wasn't quite familiar with the principals (on whom this book was supposedly based on), I ignored the negative spin and just enjoyed the story for what it was ... an invaluable lesson for all writers no matter their genre ... when Leo explains to Nathan why he should ignore the ideology and stick to the art, epiphanies (right or wrong) abound ... there was no putting this one down and the reward (for this reader) was all confirming. Whether it was Murray's decency or Nathan's naivety or Ira's iron will, the story flowed with passion start to finish. The fact there are parents who are victims (and/or) martyrs to their children (and/or their cause(s)) is undeniable (so who needs the revenge spin?). What flows from such a starting point is (probably) almost always disaster. Whether Roth is a brute or not in real life is irrelevant (not to forget the other side of the story--that he may be one hell of a decent human being), do yourself a big favor and ignore the revenge spin. Wagner was an anti-semite but much of his music remains hauntingly heavenly. Roth remains an American/World master of modern fiction.

This was my introduction to Philip Roth and it has made me (virtually overnight for I read the book in 2 nights) a Roth fan. For this is at once a book about McCarthyism, family, and memory. But perhaps most of all, it is about the human capacity to remember and to betray each other; a capacity undiminished with time. As Roth points out "The master story situation in the Bible is betrayal. Adam-betrayed. Esau-betrayed. The Schechemites-betrayed. Judah-betrayed. Joseph-betrayed. Moses-betrayed. Samson-betrayed. Samuel-betrayed. David-betrayed. Uriah-betrayed. Job-betrayed. Job betrayed by whom? By none other than God himself. And forget the betrayal of God. God betrayed by our ancestors at every turn.' (p. 185) And every character in this book is also betrayed. Nathan is betrayed. Nathan's father is betrayed. Ira is betrayed. Murray is betrayed. Eve is betrayed. Dorris is betrayed. All of them are betrayed by themselves and by America. An America they believe in; an America that never ceases to disappoint them for not living up to her potential. But finally too America is betrayed. America is betrayed by Richard Nixon, the man who as much as McCarthy was responsible for McCarthyism and who it turns out, was no better than a common crook. A petty common thief. And that perhaps is the moral (if there is one) of this story. For the betrayals, all of them are petty. They are petty because "people give up too easily and fake their feelings. They want to have feelings right away, and so `shocked' and `moved' are the easiest. The stupidest" (p. 219). People want to be good; they want to be right; they want to be caring. But being good, and right and caring involves a great deal of emotional and mental energy. It involves work and it involves overcoming of prejudices. Most people are not prepared to put in that kind of effort-nor do they want to. How much easier to unthinkingly mouth the words Nixon and McCarthy put into your mouth? For McCarthyism was the political correctness of the 1950s and if you simply said you hated the Reds or communists or whatever it was you were supposed to hate, people would say you were good. And who knows? Perhaps, like Eva, you might even have believed them. And then you would have been betrayed. By McCarthyism, by yourself. A petty betrayal of your own making.

I Married a Communist is a brilliant novel, one of few recent novels I've read through nonstop for a long time. It combines pathos and humor in laying bare a variety of important topics:both the well-intentioned but foolish Marxism and the evil witch-hunting manias of the 1950s, anti-Semitism and the integration of Jews into American life, issues of betrayal and loss, the decline of Newark, the inspiration of a good teacher. Yes, it's partly autobiographical. But the betrayed hero, Ira Ringold, who represents Roth at least in part, is part admirable giant/ part obsessive creep.The book is curious in having two levels of narration. The first is Roth's quasi-alter-ego the novelist Zuckerman, and in part this is Zuckerman's bildungsroman from the Newark classroom to the fantasies of international socialism to the University of Chicago. For Zuckerman Ira was an almost irresistible mentor, as was his brother, the teacher who inspired him to become a writer. That brother, Murray, is the second narrator, filling in Zuckerman on the parts of the story he missed, either because he was too young to understand at that time or because he separated from Ira and only heard of his end second-hand. The interplay between these two narrators, looking back over some 45 years is subtle and crafty, and the book easily moves from one consciousness to another. Murray in particular is a brlliant character: a Jewish war hero (WW II); a stimulating Socratic high school English teacher who makes Shakespeare live for his students; a union organizer who fights a witch hunt-based job dismissal and triumphs years later; a loving father, husband, and brother; and at the end a clear-minded 90-year old survivor. He feels betrayed by the teaching union he helpedestablish, betrayed by the failure of the city he grew up in. Both narrators puzzle over the meteoric rise and unaccountable marriage of Ira to a famous radio actress, a beauty with a secret Jewish past. His betrayal of her is sexual. Her big betrayal is a ghost- written book with the same title as the novel, a denuncaition of her husband, who is a naive, forceful, sometimes bullying Marxist. The book catches wonderfully the feel of the 50s, from a moral, cultural, and political view. All the major characters are given full, multi-dimensional characterization, even the wife. There's lot of humor, and lots of subtle reflection as well.One other note: Dickens had London, Balzac had Paris, and Roth has North Jersey. This novel combined with American Pastoral paints a deep (and sad) landscape of Newark and its environs. The decline and fall of Roth's native Newark is a moving background to the main action of both books.