A little too over the top for me. The meta-fiction works well, but I kept thinking to myself, "Wow, each Philip Roth in this book really hates women." ( )

The first two stories of this book are about the early career of a long-running Roth character, the novelist Nathan Zuckerman. Things get a little skewed when Book II introduces Peter Tarnopol, Roth's fictional author of the Zuckerman stories. The two Zuckerman stories are referred to in the Tarnopol narrative, which is primarily about his failed romantic relationships, particularly a failed marriage to a poisonous psycho who constantly blitzkriegs his life attempting to get him to return to her. Well-written, but Tarnopol (and Zuckerman) become tedious rather quickly with their self-destructive flailing attempts to find emotional freedom and happiness. It would be interesting to know how much of this is autobiographical. A good deal, I imagine. ( )

This is a crafty, ferocious, angry book. ( )