Philip Roth, I Married a Communist

David Rampton (University of Ottawa)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1998

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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I Married a Communist

(1998) is part of a trilogy -- with

American Pastoral

(1997) and

The Human Stain

(2000) -- in which Roth offers his take on some crucial periods in twentieth-century American history. Focussing on the anti-communist fervor in the United States after World War Two,

I Married a Communist

tells the story of Ira Ringold, a ditchdigger turned radio star, famous for playing figures like Abraham Lincoln in debates about slavery and for criticizing American capitalism and the way it treats its workers. He is one of Roth’s most sharply drawn characters: his credulity, impulsiveness, single-mindedness, and self-destructiveness affect his personal life as profoundly as they do his political adventures, and Roth supplies detailed accounts of both. But he is also something of a…

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2412 words

Citation: Rampton, David. "I Married a Communist". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 September 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21009, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Philip Roth, I Married a Communist

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