The Ghost Writer

I recently read "Exit Ghost," the last book in the Zuckerman series, and vowed I would read the first book in the series, "Ghost Writer," because I wanted to uncover whatever parallels I might find that would further my enjoyment and understanding. Let me say from the beginning that I thoroughly enjoyed both books. There is hardly a page of Roth's writing that doesn't amuse, fascinate, enthrall, or generally cause my brain to flare up with pure intellectual delight. Roth is surely a national literary treasure. "Ghost Writer" is a novella about authors, the process of creative writing, and the nature, meaning, and techniques of fiction itself. The overall plot of "Ghost Writer" is simple, but it masks layers of thematic complexity. The story concerns accomplished, successful 43-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, reminiscing about his first meeting as a 23-year-old aspiring author with his idol, the famous, but reclusive writer E. I. (Manny) Lonoff. Zuckerman manages to get an invitation to the author's home in the Berkshire countryside. There he meets Lonoff, his wife, Hope, and Lonoff's beautiful young assistant, Amy Bellette. It is obvious from the conversations he hears directly, as well as those he overhears in private, that bald, hefty 60-plus-year-old Lonoff appears to be having some type of strange love affair with his beautiful college-age assistant, and that his wife is well aware of this fact. Zuckerman is strongly attracted to Amy and has wild fantasies about her past as a Jewish war orphan, as well as about her current relationship with Lonoff. During his visit, a winter storm arrives making travel difficult. Lonoff politely invites the young writer to spend the night on the day bed in his study. Zuckerman accepts, but is too excited to sleep. During his long night alone in Lonoff's study, we enter Zuckerman's mind as he speculates, fantasizes, and toys with all the random resonant chords of memory that float up to his consciousness, and spin out of his fertile mind as fully perfected stories. Over the course of the evening and the next morning, Zuckerman begins to see that his idol is not a very good human being. Lonoff may be a great writer, but he has completely sacrificed his life, and the lives of those near and dear to him, for the sake of his art. He is monomaniacally self-absorbed--a man who lives entirely through his art. Zuckerman also learns that Amy Bellette actually believes that she is Anne Frank hiding from the world under a false name because, if the world knew that she was alive, the impact and validity of her literary art would be put in question. Thus, even though she is obviously under some type of crazed self-delusion, Amy is also another artist sacrificing her life for her art. On Lonoff's desk is a quote from yet another literary giant of self-sacrifice, Henry James: "We work in the dark--we do what we can--we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness

A work of art. I devoured this little book that speaks straight to the matter of what it means to be a writer, a person with the creative spark. All the characters are interesting and also mysterious. You only touch at their souls. I was indescribably moved by the Anne Frank section, which is imaginative and sad because she is a figure that speaks to the Jewish people but also to the part in each of us that can feel anger and compassion. Nathan's act of reimagining the Amy character IS bizarre but. . .brilliant. This is only my second Roth book and I have so many questions. Very inspiring and lovely writing.

This is a beautifully written novel. At its heart is the relation between a young aspiring short- story writer , Roth's alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, and the veteran master Lonoff, modeled on Bernard Malamud. The descriptions of Lonoff at home and at work, of his family relations are insightful and well- drawn. The weak part of the novel in my opinion is when Roth makes an imaginary flight and makes Lonoff's houseguest, helper, possible lover into Anne Frank. I believe the great strength of the work is in Roth's understanding and even parodying himself as young writer- and writing sympathetically if not uncritically about Lonoff- Malamud. In this fictional account Roth close to thirty years ago protected Malamud and had him restrain himself before the tempting advances of his young assistant. In the biography of Malamud by his daughter which appeared in 2006 it is now revealed that there was in fact no such restraint and Malamud conducted a many - year affair with a former student. Yet my sense is that what is of real value in this work is Roth's chilling description of the artist and writer Lonoff , and the price his family and everyone else has to pay for his devotion. Just to make it all more interesting there is also thrown in a novelist named Abarbanel who is Lonoff's opposite, a kind of adventurer and prolific creator of wild and big stories. My guess is that this literary figure is modeled after Saul Bellow another , as it were, mentor of Roth's. Lonoff acts not only as a kind of spiritual literary father to Zuckerman, he also gives him advice which is critical to his literary development. He essentially tells him to go with what he is, with his own voice, with his own ' turbulence' i.e. Lonoff understands that Zuckerman is a different kind of creature and creator than himself. Again Roth's writing in this work is balanced and beautiful. This is a most highly recommended piece of work.

Before I review the book, let me say that buying this one volume is sort of a waste: three of the Zuckerman novels have been collected in Zuckerman Bound (along with an epilogue) and the paperback is fairly easy to find in most used book stores.That being said, The Ghost Writer is by far my favorite part of the trilogy. Not only is it a flawlessly written book, it contains perhaps the most astounding imaginative leap in all of Roth's fiction (I don't want to give it away: read the Femme Fatale chapter). And honestly, I prefer the lovely Jamesian prose of this slender volume to the frenetic comedy of some of his other books. The Ghost Writer is much less funny that those books, but it has wonderfully realized characters (something the other books in the trilogy lack, in my opinion) and an author who is fully in control; every part of the story is exactly where it needs to be - when Roth cuts back to Nathan's parents, or tells Amy's story, he never seems to be trying too hard.Everything falls perfectly into place (even the open-ended conclusion seems to be the only way the story can end) and moves with a steady, controlled momentum. I'm not sure if I would call it Roth's masterpiece (I haven't read all of his books) but it's certainly my favorite of his early work. Read it - it barely takes a few hours, and will never be forgotten.

In "The Ghost Writer", Philip Roth explores the tension between literature and life through the eyes of Nathan Zuckerman, who looks back to his younger days when as a budding writer, he meets for the first time his literary idol, E.I.Lonoff, his wife Hope and a young girl (Amy Bellette) who appears to be Lonoff's house guest. With great skill and imagination, Roth draws us into the intriguing debate on the responsibility of an artist towards society. Is Nathan morally on safe grounds to publish a novel about the life of his family when he knows that the dirty linen he exposes will cause offence to his relatives and his community ? Is Lonoff (a literary giant though he is) deserving of Nathan's worship when he is willing to spend his entire life "writing and rearranging sentences" but shamelessly neglects his long suffering wife and children ? Are the artist's rights in the name of truth and art ultimately a selfish privilege which asks that we blind ourselves to the larger costs, whatever they are ? These are difficult issues concerning the "madness of art" which Roth handles subtly and without seeming pedentic or preachy. The last section of the novel is an absolute gem. It develops unexpectedly into a teaser which sets up a head-on collision between art and life and leaves the reader wondering about the true identity of Amy. Roth has written a highly intelligent novel that will surely stand the test of time. Highly recommended.