by Blake Bailey
First published 2023
Blake Bailey examines his six-year collaboration with Philip Roth, the novelist who granted him exclusive access to create an authorized biography. Bailey describes their complicated relationship from 2012 until Roth's death in 2018. The biography appeared in April 2021, earned critical praise, and reached number twelve on the New York Times bestseller list. Yet trouble followed quickly. Critics attacked Roth's legacy based on revelations in the book, calling him a misogynist and philanderer. Others accused Bailey of being too sympathetic to his subject's flaws. Internet rumors about Bailey's personal conduct soon emerged, leading to his own public downfall within days. Bailey now tells his side of the story, discussing both Roth's obsession with how the biography would portray him and Bailey's own mistakes. He considers whether writers' personal lives should influence how readers view their work. The book offers Bailey's direct account of working with one of America's major postwar novelists while navigating the dangers that creative people face in an era of swift public judgment.
Genres: biography, american-fiction, non-fiction, criticism, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 2012-2018, 2021
216 pages · ebook · Skyhorse