''Zuckerman Unbound'' is a 1981 novel by the American author

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

Nathan Zuckerman

The novel resumes the story of Roth's fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman that was inaugurated by Roth's previous novel ''

The Ghost Writer ''The Ghost Writer'' is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his '' Zuckerman Boun ...

''.

Themes

Like much of Roth's fiction, ''Zuckerman Unbound'' confronts the tenuous relationship between an author and his creations.

Quiz show scandals

The novel—through its supporting cast—explores the

quiz show scandals The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the ...

of the 1950s, which also form the basis for Robert Redford's 1994 drama ''

Quiz Show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating and narrating whe ...

''. In Roth's novel,

Herb Stempel Herbert Milton Stempel (December 19, 1926 – April 7, 2020) was an American television game show contestant and subsequent whistleblower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the 1950s quiz show scandals. His rigged s ...

and

Charles Van Doren Charles Lincoln Van Doren (February 12, 1926 – April 9, 2019) was an American writer and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. In 1959 he testified before the United States Congress that he had been giv ...

—played in the Redford film by, respectively,

John Turturro John Michael Turturro ( ; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied roles in independent films, and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award a ...

and

Ralph Fiennes Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (; born 22 December 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ralph Fiennes, various accolades, including a British Academy Film ...

—are called Alvin Pepler and Hewlett Lincoln.

Plot summary

The novel parallels several real events in Roth's life, including the publication of his 1969 novel ''

Portnoy's Complaint ''Portnoy's Complaint'' is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth. Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation u ...

'' and the hoopla which surrounded Roth in the wake of that novel's fame. By analogy, in ''Zuckerman Unbound'', Zuckerman has achieved meteoric acclaim and notoriety with ''Carnovsky'', a coming-of-age sex romp that differs remarkably from Zuckerman's previously Jamesian fiction. The extent to which the details of the Zuckerman character can be safely compared to those of Roth has been a subject of zealous debate among Roth's readers. Roth himself has weighed in on the debate, both in interviews and within his fiction.

''Zuckerman Bound''

The first and last books in the initial Zuckerman trilogy are 1979's ''

'' and 1983's '' The Anatomy Lesson''. The three were collected and republished in 1985 as '' Zuckerman Bound''.

Critical reception

Critic

John Lahr John Henry Lahr (born July 12, 1941) is an American theater critic and writer. From 1992 to 2013, he was a staff writer and the senior drama critic at ''The New Yorker''. He has written more than twenty books related to theater. Lahr has been ca ...

, in ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

'', called the novel "fascinating." In ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'',

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

remarked, "Always one of the most intelligent and energetic of American writers, he has now become one of the most scrupulous." In ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', R. Z. Sheppard praised Roth's "comic genius." In ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'',Harold Bloom, "His Long Ordeal By Laughter," ''The New York Times Book Review'', May 19, 1985. critic Harold Bloom said of the three collected Zuckerman novels, "''Zuckerman Bound'' merits something reasonably close to the highest level of esthetic praise for tragicomedy."

External links

Harold Bloom on ''Zuckerman Bound''

References

1981 American novels Novels by Philip Roth Farrar, Straus and Giroux books {{1980s-novel-stub