The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth

[@24hourcoffee]

Another great vid. Unfortunately I was too young to understand this book when I read it as a 17 year old. May have to revisit it...

[@ramblingraconteur1616]

I have been doing a fair amount of rereading this year and am finding new things to appreciate about a number of texts, though a few still fall flat.

[@BookishTexan]

If I ever try Roth again, it will be this book. Thanks Jack.

[@ramblingraconteur1616]

Thanks, Brian. I’d recommend reading a couple of Bernard Malamud’s short stories before embarking on this if you ever have the urge.

[@davidhall8656]

Thanks for your review. This was the first Roth I read, and I still think it's the best. I recall the energy of his prose style as striking me right away. When I later read Celine's Journey to the End of the Night, I found the tone and prose style very similar, electric, propulsive, so I suspect Celine may have been an influence on Roth.

[@ramblingraconteur1616]

I hadn’t thought about Celine, but that’s a good point. The pace and flow in The Ghost Writer is marvelous. It’s tightly written without feeling slight or constricted the way some of his shorter works can.

[@davidhall8656]

@ramblingraconteur1616 I've since found this Roth quote re Celine: "his writing drew its vigor from his demotic voice and the dramatization of his outlaw side." I think the same could be said of Roth, or at least that he modeled his own style on a similar combination.