The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth

The Ghost Writer Reviews

• 
  mark monday

  the boy ghost-writes the story of a girl's life. he turns her into a lure, a mystery, a travesty, into the best way to illustrate his Jewishness, the best way to thumb his nose at his parents and all the adults who would dare condescend to him. the boy is a writer, one who has yet to experience life. he doesn't create a story, he transcribes it. except for the story of the girl! that's all him, his projection onto her. he creates a narrative for the girl that barely takes the girl into consideration, except for the basic facts that she is a girl and, like the boy, a Jew.
  
  the boy has a father, a loving father. a father who is angry with him right now. the boy doesn't like his father's anger, doesn't like that his father's anger calls into question the boy's loyalty to the Jewish kind. and so the boy ghost-writes his own life, trying to imagine a new father figure, and after that person shows that he is unsuitable for the job, he imagines another person as his new father figure. the boy will probably continue to do this, rather than try to understand his real father's anger. the boy needs to grow up.
  
  what is a story? that is the story within stories within a story that is The Ghost Writer. the novel was completely absorbing to me. I loved its slow dance with the idea of "storytelling", with the responsibility authors have when telling the stories of their subjects, with how each person is living in their own personal story. I loved its engagement with identity (Jewish and otherwise), with how we are defined and the conflict between how we define ourselves and how others may have a completely different definition of who we are. the story felt both intimately autobiographical and completely universal.
  
  I can't believe I've avoided Roth for so long. reading this was like being introduced to a new person who I should have been friends with for years. perhaps I will rewrite my story and pretend I've been friends with him all along!
  
  
  
  
  13 of 16 in
  Sixteen Short Novels
• 
  Guille

  
  

  “Trabajamos en la oscuridad: hacemos lo que podemos; damos lo que tenemos. Nuestra duda es nuestra pasión, y nuestra pasión es nuestra tarea. El resto es la locura del arte.” (Henry James)

  Aunque unos años antes había aparecido en otra de sus novelas, es en esta en la que Roth afianza su relación ficcional con el personaje de Zuckerman, al que se mantendrá ligado el resto de su carrera. Siendo así, su alter ego no podía empezar de cualquier manera.
  
  Zuckerman entra por la puerta grande al enfrentarse como escritor, o más bien como el escritor que lleva camino de ser, a una de las grandes obsesiones del autor y del futuro personaje. Roth construye aquí un relato jamesiano en el que se cuestiona el oficio de escribir, el compromiso que el autor contrae con su arte y el efecto que ello tiene en la forma de relacionarse con el mundo y viceversa. Por supuesto, todo tenía que ser tratado con ironía, no pudiendo faltar una masturbación, al menos, ni golpes de efecto, incluida, si es posible, una relación cuasi incestuosa con drama matrimonial incluido, así como la aparición de un personaje extraordinario, que no desvelaré para no estropearles la sorpresa, que será la protagonista de una novela dentro de la novela.

  “Pureza. Serenidad. Aislamiento. Toda la capacidad de concentración, toda la exuberancia, toda la originalidad que uno pueda poseer, dedicadas en exclusiva al extenuante, exaltado y trascendente cumplimiento de la vocación… Así es como yo viviré.”

  Un joven Nathan Zuckerman busca padre literario, y la aprobación que no consigue de su padre biológico al que se encuentra enfrentado a causa de un relato en el que su propia familia judía no sale bien parada, en su visita a la solitaria casa donde reside Lonoff (¿Bernard Malamud?), escritor dedicado en cuerpo y alma a dar vueltas y vueltas a las frases, aunque tal integridad y dedicación, como ustedes estoy seguro de que desearán descubrir, no sea tan pura como pudiera parecer. En el polo opuesto está aquel que fue su primera opción como mentor literario, y también su primer fracaso como tal, Félix Abravanel (¿Norman Mailer?), un autor con un estilo literario y vital caracterizado por la exuberancia.
  
  Una novela de esas que llaman de crecimiento y con un claro corte autobiográfico que funciona como una máquina perfecta en la que cada pieza juega su papel de forma impecable en esta clásica novela corta de tan solo 130 páginas. Roth, por lo que a mi respecta, tiene un puesto asegurado en esa lista de autores que servirá siempre de bochorno para los miembros del jurado del premio Nobel, misoginias aparte.

  “No hay modo sencillo de ser grande.”
• 
  Dave Schaafsma

  I read Roth when I was in my late teens and early twenties, and only returned to reading him in recent years. I thought The American Trilogy was amazing, as was The Plot Against America. The Ghost Writer is the first of ten books narrated by the autobiographically-oriented narrator Nathan Zuckerman, and first in the four-book Zuckerman Bound series. It depicts young short story writer Nathan visiting his literary hero I. E. Lonoff (supposedly a combination of Bernard Malamud and Henry Roth, two writers Roth himself idolized as a young writer).
  
  Nathan has published four stories at this early time in his career, and because of the early buzz gets invited to stay overnight at Lonoff’s house, where he finds his hero morose and a little resentful of the writing life, having published seven books but is, ugh, always working all the time. His wife also resents Lonoff’s relentless focus on his craft to the exclusion of real life. Quite a bit of the focus of the early book is on the writing life, discussions between the earnest young Nathan and his somewhat jaded, newly adopted mentor.
  
  Lonoff says, speaking somewhat unromantically of the writing life: “I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and turn it around again. . .”
  
  I liked all that writing life talk quite a bit. I was initially less enamored with the focus on Jewish-Writer identity, and Zuckerman’s obsession with sex. Early on when I read him I loved his funny college-age lust stories in works such as Portnoy’s Complaint and Goodbye Columbus and Other Stories. Now, having Roth reflect back on those libidinous years via Zuckerman is a little annoying for me, though this may also just be an effect of my age. This is a common issue in Roth books, though, and can get tiresome, though he can be quite self-deprecatingly funny about it at times, too.
  
  So 1/3 of the way in the book I thought it was a merely good book, well-written, by one of our greatest living writers. And then it really took off, and the dialogue really begins to sing, as it can in the best of Roth’s works! Zuckerman’s writing gets him in conflict with his own family, which makes him initially resentful of his Newark family and his parents’s harping on his responsibility to his Jewish heritage.
  
  Then the identity of a (Jewish) woman who is a guest in the Lonoff home turns him around again, making him question anew issues of the responsibility of the writer to his writing, to life, family, and cultural identity. I’m not going to say anything specific about that woman, but it is a surprising and wonderful turn of events that elevates the novel to a new level. In the end I very much liked it. Yeah, I was seduced by Roth, and Zuckerman. A great start to the series and surely one of the best books of one of the best American authors.
• 
  Douglas

  How did this not win the Pulitzer? How has Roth not won a Nobel? This was one of the most brilliant works of art I've ever encountered. Far and away, the best book I've read all year.
  
  This is the type of book I always hope to encounter when I read fiction. Beautiful sentences, powerful dialogue, the kind of character tension that causes a reader to nearly explode. There were times I couldn't believe I was reading. It felt as if I were deposited into a farmhouse in the Berkshires, observing from Lonoff's American mantelpiece. Philip Roth does this with an almost perfect mastery of language.
  
  What's especially intriguing is that, from what I've read, Roth has sort of morphed into a Lonoff-type in the last few decades. His alter ego in this book, the young Nathan Zuckerman, was enamored by Lonoff's work and wanted more than anything to know the artist. Lonoff is based on Malamud or Henry Roth, presumably, and in this novel, Zuckerman (Roth) seemed to be accepting the torch as the new great American novelist. Yet, now, as we look at the recently retired Roth's own life and history, the young apprentice has become the Lonoff. Life imitating art or art becoming life.
  
  This is only my second Roth, but if they're all like this, I have at long last found my favorite writer.
• 
  Darwin8u

  “I know the kind of man I am and the kind of writer. I have my own kind of bravery, and please, let’s leave it at that.”
  ― Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer
  
  
  
  I've read a ton of Roth, but have yet to really engage the Zuckerman series. The Ghost Writer is book one in the four book cycle Zuckerman Bound:
  
  1. The Ghost Writer (1979)
  2. Zuckerman Unbound (1981)
  3. The Anatomy Lesson (1983)
  4. The Prague Orgy (1985)
  
  It is hard to engage some of the more specific reasons WHY I loved this book -- without giving away some of the more the dramatic elements. However, within that constraint I CAN say I loved how Roth explores both what it means to be a Jewish writer (with all the expectations that come with that occupation in a post-holocaust world) and what it means to be a fiction writer period. How art reflects life and life is impacted by the work and the flow of art. There are few living writers whose output I respect more than Philip Roth, and while I don't think his 80s novels stand up entirely to later novels, he is still stretching the limits of prose and dangling ideas and situations that are both entertaining and almost absurd.
  
• 
  Davide

  Gli autori seri
  [2018]
  
  Periodicamente qualcuno mi chiede quale libro leggere di Philip Roth. Oppure quale leggere dopo Pastorale americana. Oppure in che ordine leggerli tutti.
  Un buon inizio, se non si mira alla completezza, può essere questo Ghost Writer.
  Io l'ho letto una dozzina di anni fa; e periodicamente mi torna il desiderio di rileggerlo.
  Se non altro per arrivare di nuovo all'esilarante e malinconica tirata finale della moglie di Lonoff, il grande scrittore ammirato dal giovane Zuckermann, che inizia qui a diventare l'alter ego principale di Philip.
  E anche per leggere del metodo seguito dal medesimo grande scrittore Lonoff quando si dedica agli "scrittori seri": «Non rendeva giustizia a uno scrittore se non lo leggeva per qualche giorno consecutivamente e per almeno tre ore di fila. Altrimenti, nonostante le note e le sottolineature, perdeva i contatti con la vita interiore del libro, e tanto sarebbe valso non averlo neppure cominciato. A volte, quando inevitabilmente doveva saltare un giorno, tornava indietro e ricominciava da capo, per non essere tormentato dall’idea di avere fatto un torto a un autore serio.»
• 
  Evi *

  E se Anna Frank non fosse morta a Bergen-Belsen?,
  Se fosse ancora viva, magari emigrata negli Stati Uniti, scrittrice in incognita, con identità segreta tenuta nascosta perfino allo stesso padre Otto Frank?
  
  Roth prende Anna Frank, il simbolo del sacrificio ebraico del ‘900 e lo piazza come personaggio del suo romanzo (che sia immaginario o reale non è poi così importante ai fini della storia) e ne distrugge audacemente il tabù, desacralizzando una eroina sulla quale non sono ammesse discussioni (tranne che per la fantascienza negazionista) e comincia a rimestare il tema dell’ebraismo, IL TEMA , con il quale si troverà a fare i conti per tutta la sua vita, di uomo e di scrittore..
  
  Ma Lo scrittore fantasma è sopratutto il primo episodio in cui entra in scena il mitico Nathan Zuckerman che accompagnerà molte altre opere dello scrittore di Newark.
  E’ un romanzo interessante, di formazione, forse non ancora il Roth scatenato che avremo occasione di leggere in seguito, ma già un ottimo Roth dove la linea labile tra autobiografia e fiction si fa sempre più esile.
  Zuckerman incarna Roth e Roth incarna Zuckerman, e… quanto faceva incazzare il nostro autore quando gli veniva mossa questa considerazione.
  
  E’ uno dei suoi primi romanzi ma ha in sé già molti dei temi cari alla sua narrativa spesso pennellati in chiave tragicomica: l’ebraismo, il fuoco sacro per la scrittura, il rapporto tra padri e figli, il sesso, la vecchiaia.
  
  Lo scrittore fantasma comincia là dove si chiuderà, in quel maggio del 2018 la vita di Philip Roth, ritiratosi quasi in vesta claustrale in un cottage di legno isolato nel Massachusetts circondato da frassini e aceri, guardando la neve e dove ogni momento strappato alla lettura e alla scrittura finirà per diventare un momento non vissuto di una vita passata a girare frasi.
  
  Io prendo le frasi e le giro. Questa è la mia vita. Scrivo una frase e la giro. Poi la guardo e la giro di nuovo. Poi vado a pranzo. Poi torno qui e scrivo un'altra frase. Poi prendo il tè e giro la frase nuova. Poi rileggo le due frasi e le giro tutt'e due. Poi mi sdraio sul sofà e rifletto. Poi mi alzo e le cancello e ricomincio da capo. E se interrompo questo trantran anche solo per un giorno vengo preso da una noia forsennata e mi sembra di avere perso tempo
• 
  Carlo Mascellani

  Leggerete questa storia credendo di saper in anticipo come andrà a finire e ogni volta vi scoprirete piacevolmente spiazzati. Ben oltre la trama, Roth lascia trasparire nei suoi personaggi il mal celato desiderio di fuga da una realtà loro poco consona, per perseguire un proprio ideale di libertà e cercar quella vita che solo nei loro sogni appare lucente e immacolata,mentre, al vaglio della ragione e della realtà, a stento lascia immaginare le proprie forme.
• 
  Alan

  I finished this book and started to think about why I love reading Roth. From what I have read so far, the stories are slow. The structure of any given narrative within the grand story is always compelling. If Roth is taking a break from detailing the trials and tribulations of the Jewish population in Newark (the grand story), he is discussing a risky sexual rendezvous with a married woman (short narrative). The grand story is inching along in the background as he peppers compelling vignettes all over it. You reach the end, and often, taking a day or two to think about the whole experience would probably do you well.
  
  The Ghost Writer is not much different. Certainly it cannot reach the heights of an American Pastoral, but it has that unmistakable Roth voice and charm that I have come to know and love. This is the first Nathan Zuckerman book, a series of 9 loosely connected stories, all with the fictional, totally-not-a-stand-in-for-Roth author as the main character/protagonist/narrator. Here, Zuckerman is afforded the opportunity to discuss life, literature, and authorship with his idol, a renowned writer whiling away the time in Massachusetts. This is the grand story. And you know what? For a lot of us, that is perfectly fine. But the short narratives come when Zuckerman dives into his relationship with his father, his Jewish identity, offending this identity and the diaspora, and of course, OF COURSE, masturbation. Did you think you could get away with it? This is a Roth book, after all. Worth a read for the slightly more serious fan.
• 
  Sandra

  "Non rendeva giustizia a uno scrittore se non lo leggeva per qualche giorno consecutivamente e per almeno tre ore di fila. Altrimenti, nonostante le note e le sottolineature, perdeva i contatti con la vita interiore del libro, e tanto sarebbe valso non averlo neppure cominciato."
  Sembra semplice questo breve romanzo, in cui il giovane scrittore ebreo alle prime armi Nathan Zuckerman si presenta nella casa isolata dal resto del mondo, sommersa dalla neve, di uno scrittore ebreo affermato, E. I. Lonoff: il tema principale è questo, l'incontro tra lo scrittore affermato e quello alle prime armi. Ma la grandezza di Roth sta nell'inserire dentro una storia apparentemente chiara e semplice dei chiaroscuri, dei temi che si ripeteranno nelle sue opere, l'essere ebrei, l'essere ebrei sopravvissuti all'olocausto, il rapporto difficile tra padri e figli, il sesso v/s la vecchiaia, ed ancora l'imprescindibile tema del rapporto tra l'autore ed il personaggio, che sia il suo alter ego, o meno.
• 
  [P]

  A friend of mine has recently broken up with his girlfriend, and I was telling him yesterday that it’s, y’know, not always a bad thing, that sometimes two people are simply not suited to each other. Those are hardly profound words, I know, but they started me thinking about an ex of mine. The girl and I, it’s fair to say, near-hated each other. I like to think neither of us were/are bad people; it was just that there was something about our personalities that did not mesh, that meant that we could barely look at each other without wanting to poke the other person’s eyes out with the blunt end of an axe. It was an Isreali-Palestinian type of deal.
  
  Anyway, one of our worst arguments was about whether it was a harmless impulse to want to meet famous people, or people of whom you are a fan. I said no; she said yes. To my mind, that impulse shows a lack of imagination, or ambition; it’s a weird kind of subjugation. I should make it clear that we were not discussing people networking or making contacts, e.g. people who want to meet a famous musician because they themselves want to break into the business, but rather the desire to meet someone purely because of who they are and what they have created/achieved. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I want no part of it. Not even Proust? she asked. No, not even Proust. What would I say? So, he wrote a great book. Big deal. He was probably as boring and conceited and immature as the rest of us. Talk to Proust! I hardly ever talk to my own mother.
  
  The Ghost Writer begins with a young Nathan Zuckerman arriving at the house of his hero, the writer E.I. Lonoff. To some extent he belongs to that category of people who want to use a famous person in order to get ahead, because, while being a fan of Lonoff, what he appears to be seeking is a mentor. Zuckerman is a short-story writer, has had one or two things praised and published and he sees in Lonoff an opportunity to further his career. Indeed, it seems as though Lonoff wasn’t even his first choice for the role, having first approached Felix Abravanel, another renowned author, but found the vital, vibrant Felix too interested in his own personality, his own still-flourishing life, to find satisfaction in helping a boy at the start of his.
  
  On this level the book reminded me very much of Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow, a writer who was, ironically enough, one of Roth’s own heroes. Lonoff like Humbold is essentially an old man, slightly embittered maybe [more so Humboldt], but certainly weary and dourly charismatic. In both books this older, wiser, more experienced man dispenses wisdom [life and literary] to his young charge. However, as the story progresses, as we get to know more about Nathan, and Lonoff and his wife and his student Amy, we come to realise that Roth’s novel is far more than merely a rewrite of Bellow’s, that is has great depth and richness. Indeed, it is a more profound read than Humboldt’s Gift itself.
  
  It is perhaps half way into the book that Nathan tells a story about a story [The Ghost Writer was written during Roth’s meta phase] he wrote and mailed to his father. This story told about a dramatic family argument over a legacy. When Nathan’s father reads the story he is upset by it, as he sees in it anti-semitic clichés i.e. a bunch of Jews fighting over money. Nathan and his father fall out over the story, and by the time he visits Lonoff they still haven’t patched things up.
  
  

  “I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste.”

  
  
  So, in one sense Zuckerman is not only looking for a mentor, but also a new father, someone who will praise and, more importantly, understand him. Yet, that isn’t what grabbed me. More engaging were the questions raised by Roth, such as 'what does it mean to be Jewish?' and 'what responsibility does a Jewish person have towards his people?' The father thinks that Nathan ought to realise that by showing Jewish people as money-grubbers he is doing a disservice to his race, that he is propagating a harmful stereotype. Nathan, on the other hand, thinks that he was merely telling the truth, or being true to his story, and that is all that matters. He doesn’t want to shoulder any kind of responsibility for the Jewish people, he merely wants to be himself. In fact, one could say that only in being himself, only when race is not an issue, and someone isn’t a Jewish writer, but just a writer, with all the freedom that that entails, will racism no longer be an issue. I found this part of the novel fascinating.
  
  The Ghost Writer is a slim novel, but it doesn’t feel that way at all. This is all weighty stuff, deep and meaningful stuff. And it’s not all the book has to offer. I want to be careful of spoilers, but there is simply no way to discuss what I want to discuss without letting the cat out of the bag. In any case, I feel as though very few people will come to the book not knowing about Amy, and her secret, because every review I have ever seen mentions it. Amy is a friend of sorts of Lonoff’s; or he is perhaps more a surrogate father [yes, we’re back to fathers again]. She is of foreign origin, but was helped, by the writer, to come to America via England. She is a source of conflict between Lonoff and his wife, and masturbatory material for Nathan, but none of this is what is interesting about her. What is interesting about Amy is that she is, or might be, or is imagined by Nathan to be, Anne Frank, an Anne Frank who survived the concentration camps and has lived to be twenty six.
  
  Now, you might be rolling your eyes at this point, and certainly I did a couple of times while reading her story. However, once again, it raises some absorbing questions, like 'what would it mean if Anne Frank had survived?' The entire Anne Frank industry [and it is an industry] revolves around, and needs, her death. Frank, and Roth does discuss this, symbolises the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust and, to an extent, Jewish persecution throughout the ages. No death, no symbol. Without Frank’s death there is no likeable, precocious, articulate young girl upon whom the world can dump its sympathies; no familiar, engaging, and pretty face for gentiles to stare at while feeling good about themselves for being upset about her plight and the plight, historically, of Jews-at-large. Without Frank’s death there would not be a symbol of Jewish normalcy, a Jew that gentiles can relate to.
  
  Yet, by having Frank survive, Roth makes a point made by many scholars: she was just one girl and should not be allowed to stand for, to symbolise, the atrocities of the Holocaust. Roth then takes this idea even further, because Nathan starts to fantasise about marrying Frank. He thinks: How could they [my family] accuse me of betraying my race, of fumbling my responsibility as a Jew if I marry this girl-symbol, the ultimate heroic Jewess! It’s both very funny and very moving.
  
  
  
  This is not, however, merely a novel of ideas. Roth’s writing is at its most controlled, its warmest here. He is, I think people sometimes forget, a wonderful stylist. The Ghost Writer is also one of his least controversial novels. Sure, the two female characters don’t exactly wield the kind of power that Zuckerman, Lonoff and his father do, and neither are particularly sympathetic, but there is surprisingly little here for feminists to [sometimes justifiably] get pissed off about. After finishing the book I came to realise that this is my kind of Roth: the nostalgic, sentimental, quietly, but powerfully intelligent Roth.
• 
  Ryan Chapman

  I forgot how thrilling Roth can be. His books contain such a subtle, building power that hits about two-thirds the way through. (In particular I remember the eureka! moment with
  The Human Stain when its ideological weight revealed itself.)
  
  I don't want to get too much into the story, as the less a reader knows going in the better. Let's just say it's about young Nathan Zuckerman making a pilgrimage to the farmhouse of his idol, a man names Lonoff. The novel is really about what must be sacrificed in one's life for art, and whether that sacrifice is even worth it. This novel can be read in one sitting, but be ready for it to linger for days, maybe weeks.
• 
  David

  The story itself is extremely good but the writing is outstanding.
  
  4.5 stars
• 
  Gabril

  “Come lo amavo! Sì, non poteva essere che amore quello che provavo per quest’uomo senza illusioni: amore per la franchezza, la scrupolosità, la severità, l’estraniamento; amore per il vaglio inesorabile cui sottoponeva il proprio io, infantile, insaziabile, vanesio; amore per l’artistica tenacia e il sospetto in cui teneva quasi tutto il resto; e anche amore per il fascino segreto, che mi aveva appena lasciato intravedere”.
  
  No, non è facile “la vita lassù, nell’egosfera” e Lo scrittore fantasma è il primo romanzo ‘egobiografico’ che lo dimostra.
  La controfigura letteraria più celebre di Roth, Nathan Zuckerman, inaugura così il ciclo delle sue apparizioni come protagonista. Ancora giovane scrittore di talento e belle speranze, Nathan viene accolto nella casa -sperduta tra le colline e sprofondata nella neve- del suo idolo letterario, Lonoff.
  Essere al cospetto di un mostro sacro della letteratura, spiarne le abitudini, coglierne suo malgrado i segreti, intessere ipotesi plausibili e farneticanti sulla sua vita è ciò che il giovane sarà impegnato a fare nei due giorni trascorsi in casa Lonoff.
  Che cosa significhi dedicare la vita a “girare le frasi” e che cosa significhi diventare un fantasma, ovvero fuggire la fama del mondo, la sua acuminata curiosità, Zuckerman è destinato a scoprirlo ben presto, almeno in forma di conoscenza indiretta, prima che come esperienza diretta (ciò che accadrà nel secondo romanzo della serie).
  L’abilità di Roth a costruire una realtà parallela e corrispondente alla sua attraverso i romanzi è già matura e destinata a future elaborazioni. Lucidità, chiarezza e lato d’ombra si uniscono in un matrimonio felice: è la qualità della scrittura, lucida e visionaria insieme. Complessa, articolata. Seria e ironica. Sfaccettata.
  
  Il discorso di Hope, moglie-ombra, devota vestale sacrificata alla vocazione del marito, chiude il racconto con l’impennata ribelle di chi ha rinunciato a vivere per amore di colui il quale ha fatto della non-vita la sostanza della sua arte. Per ogni Tolstoj che parla e scrive, insomma, c’è una Sof’ja destinata alla sopportazione e al silenzio.
• 
  Connie G

  Nathan Zuckerman, a young short story writer hoping for a mentor, visits established writer E.I. Lonoff. Over a twenty-four hour period several conflicts arise showing the struggle between a writer's devotion to his craft, and the loyalty he feels toward his family and his cultural identity. The older writer has devoted his whole life to his writing while ignoring his own happiness and the needs of his wife.
  
  Zuckerman has written a short story about a true event in his family's life involving a dispute over money. His father does not want it published because it shows Jews in a stereotypical unflattering light. His father and a family friend put pressure on Zuckerman not to publish.
  
  The third thread of conflict occurs in Zuckerman's imagination where he pretends that a visiting young woman writer is really Anne Frank who has survived the Nazi concentration camps. The woman is conflicted whether she should reveal her identity to her aging father in Europe. If she was alive, it would reduce the literary importance of her diary.
  
  Author Philip Roth writes from the point of view of a Jewish writer. The various parts of the story are beautifully woven together showing the conflicting demands a writer faces, especially when he puts real experiences in his fiction. The need for a father figure also runs under the surface. Roth's writing is intelligent, showing both the humorous and tragic parts of life.
• 
  Biron Paşa

  Philip Roth son zamanlardaki favori yazarım diyebilirim. Bir sonraki kitabına geçmek için ciddi bir arzu duyuyorum. Genelde böyle olmaz. Hayalet Yazar'ı ise Sokaktaki Adam ve Öfke'deki tarzından üslup olarak farklı ama anlatım biçimi olarak benzer şekilde oluşturmuş.
  
  Edebiyatı doğrudan tema olarak aldığını görünce meraklanmıştım genel olarak ama Philip Roth'un derdi doğrudan edebiyat değil, yazarın kendisi bu kitapta.
  
  Anlatım biçimi, üslubu gayet güzel. Ekseriyetle atmosfer romanları beni kendisine bağlar, Philip Roth bunun istisnalarından. Fakat okuduğum üçüncü kitabından sonra çok da tartışılan bir konuya değinmek istiyorum: Cinsellik ve kadınlar. Açıkça söylemek gerekirse ben kitaplarda zekice cinselliği seviyorum. Yani derdi doğrudan cinsellik olmayan, ama erotizmi ve cinsel gerilimi oluşturabilmesi bir yazarın, bana beceri işi gibi geliyor. Piyasada porno izlemeyi "doğru" bulmayan kadınlar için yazılmış binlerce erotik kitaptaki en büyük eksiğin erotizm olması ise, bunun en azından belli bir miktarda zekâ gerektirdiğini doğrular nitelikte. Ben bunu eleştirmiyorum, ama belki de benim eksikliğimden kaynaklanan bir şekilde, ben kitaplardaki kadın karakterlerin neden var olduğunu anlayamıyorum. Aynısını Öfke için de demiştim - ki üç kitabından en beğendiğim o kitaptı, bu kitap için de diyebilirim. Kitaptaki esas kadın karakterleri çıkardığınız zaman hikâyenin temel hali bir zarar görmüyor. Anlatılan hikâye yine hemen hemen aynı şekilde anlatılabiliyor. Örneğin bu kitapta Lonoff'un kişiliği ve karısıyla yaşadığı karmaşık ilişki Amy Belette karakteri olmada da anlatılabilirdi diye düşünüyorum. Daha önemlisi, Amy Belette hikâyesi neden var, onu da anlamıyorum.
  
  
• 
  Algernon (Darth Anyan)

  [7/10]
  
  “I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning.”
  
  I don’t follow on this E. I. Lonoff technique for writing my Goodreads reviews. This is probably the reason nobody offered me a Pulitzer prize for my writing yet!
  I do follow my own stream of conscience and/or gut feelings about what I read, especially when I start on a new voice: getting in as blind as possible in this information-rich online world. I was only aware that Philip Roth is reputed to be one of those ‘ivory tower’ intellectual writers who think their musings and their anxieties are important to the world at large, but I also somehow knew that he won a metric ton of prizes for his art. I usually avoid such introspective novels, but I had such a good reaction to Virginia Woolf that I thought: what the hell! personal biases are there to be broken...
  Nathan Zuckermann, here I come!
  
  Really, who knew better than E. I. Lonoff that it is not our high purposes alone that make us moving creatures, but our humble needs and cravings?
  
  A young writer named Nathan Zuckermann, fresh out of school and with a couple of short stories published in high-brow magazines under his belt, decides to pay a visit to his literary guru, E. I. Lonoff, at his remote country farm in Connecticut.
  During the evening, the two artists discuss writing, try to answer the eternal question: Where do you get your inspiration?” , exchange opinions on why both have chosen to write only about Jewish characters, and gaze longingly at a mysterious young woman that works as a secretary for Lonoff.
  
  ... sensitive Jewish sages, as Babel says, dying to climb trees.
  
  
  One central question that insistently comes to the fore is between real life and imagination, between experience and fiction: How can you write about real people, when you spent your whole life as a recluse, insulated from other people by the ivory tower of your genius?
  Both Zuckerman and Lonoff are aware of the introspection conundrum:
  
  “Don’t try it,” he said. “If your life consists of reading and writing and looking at the snow, you’ll wind up like me. Fantasy for thirty years.”
  
  Yet what else has such a writer to use for his prose that the inner sparkle of his intellect? Before embarking on an example of how Nathan Zuckerman uses his acute observation powers of the family life of E. I. Lonoff [the tensions between the master’s high-society Gentile wife and the infatuated young student refugee from Europe], to create a story out of night time erotic fantasies, I would like to make a remark about the reason Nathan has such a high opinion of Lonoff’s talent:
  ... the hero who, some ten years after Hitler, seemed to say something new and wrenching to Gentiles about Jews, and to Jews about themselves, and to readers and writers of that recuperative decade generally about the ambiguities of prudence and the anxieties of disorder, about life-hunger, life-bargains, and life-terror in their most elementary manifestations.
  
  This passage could very well serve as an artist’s manifesto, his purpose in art and his reason to write mostly about intellectual types trying to come to terms with modern life and alienation, his reason for blurring the border between autobiographical elements and fantasy, why a story by you without a Jew in it is unthinkable.
  
  I believe it has also something to do with integrity, with staying true to who you are and to what you are trying to say in your prose. Nathan Zuckerman, as a young author, was probably challenged at the start of his career with betraying the very people he tries to write about, his heritage as seen through the eyes of bigoted older leaders of the community. :
  “What is it, Ma?”
  “Are you really anti-Semitic?”
  
  His literary answer, his defence in front of the self-appointed jury of his elders, is to imagine himself in the presence of the one spotless icon of Jewishness to emerge from the Holocaust:
  
  Oh, marry me, Anne Frank, exonerate me before my outraged elders of this idiotic indictment! Heedless of Jewish feeling? Indifferent to Jewish survival? Brutish about their well-being? Who dares to accuse of such unthinking crimes the husband of Anne Frank?
  
  The merit of Philip Roth is to somehow manage to make this argument credible, as coming directly from the heart of a struggling artist who refuses to join the ranks of the indoctrinated, yet cares passionately about the very same issues.
  
  You’re not so nice and polite in your fiction! observes the same E. I. Lonoff as the two authors part ways, encouraging the young Nathan to continue to make waves, to continue to challenge his peers to rise above such polemics and search for a deeper truth than ready-made propaganda.
  
  Beside the extensive quotes from Anne Frank’s diary, and the exercise of imagination about an alternate reality where she survives the death camps and comes to live in the New World, my favourite scene in the novel is the highlighting of a quote from Henry James as a more succint and better phrased artist manifesto:
  
  “We work in the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”
  
  For this phrase alone, and for the reverence with which it is offered here, I am willing to continue reading the stories of Philip Roth, after this first visit.
• 
  Blackjessamine

  Ho terminato questo libro da quasi venti giorni, ma non ho ancora trovato il coraggio di sedermi e scrivere almeno qualche riga di commento. E dire che si è trattato di una lettura profondamente immersiva, di quelle fatte con la matita costantemente in mano e il blocco per gli appunti accanto: le frasi che ho sottolineato sono molte, le riflessioni che ho annotato ancora di più. Eppure mi è difficile pensare di scrivere qualcosa su "Lo scrittore fantasma" - e su Philip Roth in genere - pensando che ci sarà qualcuno che leggerà le mie parole, perché sono abbastanza sicura di non essere in grado di rendere appieno tutto quello che vorrei dire. E di Philip Roth vorrei saper parlare molto meglio di come faccio abitualmente con tanti altri libri, perché i suoi romanzi aprono a panorami del pensiero potenzialmente immensi, e sarebbe davvero uno spreco - sì, uno spreco di umanità, mi verrebbe quasi da dire - non profondere tutte le proprie energie per rendere loro giustizia.
  Ecco, "Lo scrittore fantasma" è un libriccino di poche pagine, che potenzialmente si legge in un paio di pomeriggi, ma il problema (il meraviglioso problema) con Philip Roth è che i suoi libri non si esaursicono nel solo momento della lettura, ma continuano a scavare e a sedimentarsi anche quando la mente è lontanissima dalla lettura. Parlando di "Pastorale americana" avevo detto di aver impiegato diverso tempo a "digerire" il romanzo, e ora credo proprio che il termine "digestione" sia estremamente appropriato: perché i libri di Roth hanno bisogno di un'assimilazione lenta, devono essere incubati, agiscono attivamente nella mente del lettore e spingono ad una partecipazione attiva; lasciano sedimenti, a volte sono dolorosi, spesso sono scabrosi, ed estremamente fisici. Insomma, con Roth si riflette moltissimo, ma ci si sporca anche molto le mani.
  "Lo scrittore fantasma" è un romanzo che costringe il lettore a fare le capriole, nonostante la trama sia qualcosa di estremamente semplice: un giovane e promettente scrittore riesce ad incontrare il grande scrittore E. I. Lonoff, suo maestro e fonte d'ispirazione nonché sorta di padre putativo. Nella casa di Lonoff, il giovane Nathan Zuckerman incontra anche una giovane e brillante studentessa. A livello di trama, di vero e proprio intreccio della vicenda, tutto finisce qui. La storia copre l'arco di una cena, una notte e una mattinata, eppure Roth trova il modo di dilatare ed espandere immensamente i confini del suo racconto, creando un intreccio di tematiche e di vicende che lascia basiti per la precisione e la genialità con cui viene presentato.
  Roth parla dell'ebraismo di seconda generazione, e mostra con un acume straordinario cosa significhi essere discriminati per dei pregiudizi assurdi, e di come la paura di essere giudicati attraverso stereotipi porti ad indossare gli stessi paraocchi di chi discrimina. La lettera che il giudice scrive al giovane Nathan è qualcosa di straordinario, un esempio lucidissimo di chiusura mentale, bigottismo e paternalismo che vuole mascherarsi da altruismo, ma in realtà non nasconde altro che la volontà di chiudersi nel proprio orticello e allontanare da esso ogni minaccia, senza mai nemmeno provare a pensare ad esso come a qualcosa di inserito in un orizzonte più ampio.
  E. I. Lonoff è una figura assurda, un omone vagamente sovrappeso che vive rinchiuso nella sua villa di campagna, circondato da cumuli di neve e strade impraticabili, prigioniero di una vita fatta di ferree abitudini e di monotonia: da trent'anni scrivo opere di fantasia. A me non succede mai nulla , questo dice, e probabilmente ciò è anche vero. Eppure per due volte permette che qualcosa venga a smuovere i suoi equilibri, accettando dei giovani estranei nella sua dimora e nella sua vita: durante la notte invernale descritta dal romanzo, accogliendo Nathan Zuckerman, come aeva fatto in passato con la giovane e piena di talento Amy Bellette. E proprio a proposito di questa studentessa particolarmente dotata e dal passato particolarmente misterioso si sviluppa la parte più bella e affascinante del romanzo: Roth fa fare al lettore l'ennesimo giro di giostra, l'ennesima capriola, e quello che emerge davanti agli occhi di un lettore spaesato è un mondo capovolto, a cui è difficile credere - a cui forse non si vuole credere, quasi che Roth si sia spinto troppo in là, quasi avesse toccato qualcosa di intoccabile - per poi rimettere a posto le cose con un colpo di spugna che apparentemente sembra cancellare ogni prurito morale, ma che in realtà lascia il lettore con una manciata di pungoli etici che non lo abbandoneranno per molto tempo. Roth parla di olocausto, di libertà e di ricostruzione, racconta di qualcuno a cui è stato strappato tutto, e che compie qualcosa di paradossale, qualcosa che è difficile da accettare, ma del resto chi più di questa persona ha il diritto di disegnare nuovi confini per la propria vita? ( lo so, chi non ha letto il libro troverà questo mio commento quasi delirante, ma non voglio anticipare assolutamente nulla su questo aspetto della trama, e al tempo stesso spero che qualcuno si incuriosisca e per dare un senso alle mie parole decida di leggere il romanzo). Roth ci costringe ad affrontare dilemmi che vorremmo forse cercare semplicemente di ignorare, ci costringe ad assumerci la responsabilità etica anche delle lacrime che versiamo davanti alla lettura di determinate testimonianze.
  C'è poi una bellissima riflessione sulla nascita delle opere letterarie, confrontando il rigirare di frasi di E. I Lonoff (e di tutti quegli scrittori ebei come uomini con l'autunno nel cuore e gli occhiali sul naso che si nascondono dietro questa figura letteraria )con la terribilie veridicità di quella che definieri come l'opera di Amy Bellette, per arrivare infine a Nathan Zuckerman, che altri non è che quel maledetto genio di Philip Roth.
  "Lo scrittore fantasma" è un gioco di specchi e rimandi, realtà e riflessi, verità storica e verità romanzesca, menzogna e invenzione, ma in così poche pagine racchiude una forza e pregnanza di significato tale da lasciarmi senza fiato.
  E alla fine di tutto, egoisticamente, non posso non pensare all'immenso piacere e a quanta sicurezza mi dia il sapere che ci sono ancora così tanti libri di Philip Roth, così tante pagine ancora da dover fare a pezzi e digerire, così tanti stomaci ancora da poter saziare!
• 
  Galina

  В свое интервю Рот казва: "Един истински читател на романи, е възрастен, който чете, да речем, два или три часа всяка вечер, три или четири пъти седмично. За две или три седмици той е прочел книгата си. Истинският читател не е човек, който чете от време на време, по половин час, после оставя книгата и се връща към нея след осем дни, докато лежи на плажа. Когато четат, истинските читатели не се разсейват с друго нещо. Те слагат децата в леглото и започват да четат. Не попадат в клопката на телевизора и не спират на всеки пет минути, за да си купят нещо по интернет или да говорят по телефона. Но това е безспорно, броят на хората, които се отнасят сериозно към четенето, намалява много бързо".
  "Писателят призрак" - заради сравнително скромния си обем, изисква от споменатото сериозно читателско отношение едва в рамките на няколко часа. Няколко часа тишина, съсредоточеност и разбиране. Последното е най-нужно. И под "разбиране" имам предвид познаване на историческия контекст, в който този роман се появява и познаване, доколкото това изобщо е възможно, на Рот като автор със своите особености. Защото в противен случай ще откриваме само семпъл сюжет и претенциозно посвещение (На Милан Кундера), както и посоки на размисъл, вече срещани в по-рано издаваните му заглавия: мястото на евреите в следвоенна Америка и антисемитизма, мястото на изкуството в реалността, както и точно обратното - тежестта на ежедневното върху изкуството, невъзможността да се откъснеш от влиянието на семейството, изстиналите и в��е пак непрекратени съпружески отношения, изневярата.
  Само че трябва да имаме предвид, че това е същият онзи писател, който казва за себе си, че е посветил живота си на романа, "изучавах го, преподавах го, писах го и го четох". Тоест, вярва ни се или не, Рот не просто преобръща изречения, а има академичната подготовка да го прави добре - дори, когато се намира в началото на своята кариера. Ето защо "Писателят призрак" успява да напълни 180 страници с невидимото (или пък не чак толкова скрито присъствие) на Кафка, Флобер, Достоевски, Томас Ман, Хоторн, Чехов, Джойс; ето защо е толкова логично основният двигател на повествованието да е срещата между едва прохождащ млад автор и неговия кумир, а в последствие да се окаже, че има и други, не по-малко мощни и важни двигатели.
  Ако пък приемем, че една съществена част от книгата е посветена на писането като акт на създаване на текст, то няма как да избягаме от думите на Рот, наистина - изречени десетилетия по-късно: Да пишеш означава да изпитваш вина през цялото време. Всичките ви чернови разказват историята на вашите неуспехи. Вече нямам енергия за фрустрацията, нито силата, за да й се противопоставя. Защото да пишеш, означава да бъдеш фрустриран: прекарваш времето си да пишеш бездарни думи, бездарни фрази, бездарна история. Непрекъснато се лъжеш, непрекъснато не успяваш, и така трябва да живееш във вечна фрустрация. Прекарваш времето си да си казваш: това не става, трябва да започна отначало; това също не става, и започваш отначало. Уморен съм от цялата тази работа.
  Да, алтер егото Нейтън Зукърман е само на двадесет и три години, а интервюираният Рот - на 78. И все пак...
  Не препоръчвам "Писателят призрак" - вече не смея да препоръчвам книги, но аз имах желанието и да я прочета, и да я притежавам. Намирам Рот за очарователен по един смущаващо-странен начин и срещите с него почти винаги са ми приятни.
• 
  Michael Finocchiaro

  Nathan Zuckerman reminded me of Herzog a bit. This first book of the Zuckerman Bound series was funny and witty and quite ingenious with the first person narrative and the frequent flights of narrative fantasy. I fear that delving too much into the other characters would spoil the pleasure for a potential reader so let me just say that Roth here turns simple overnight story with four characters into a Calvino-esque reflection on the distance between the writer and his written subject. A quick but very rewarding read.
  I highly recommend going through the Zuckerman books in order: The Ghost Writer (this one), Zuckerman Unbound, The Anatomy Lesson, The Prague Orgy, Operation Shylock, The Counterlife, The American trilogy: American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, The Human Stain, and ESPECIALLY do not forget to read the conclusion - the wonderful Exit Ghost which forms a perfect reflection of The Ghost Writer.
• 
  Ken

  OK, so I read my Roth. Check. Haven't read him since the 80s, when I picked up Portnoy's Complain. Or maybe it was Goodbye, Columbus. One of those. Does it matter?
  
  This one was short (not all Roths are), well-written (I'm assuming all Roths are), and a "tweener" in that I could've 3-starred it as easily as 4-starred it but the 3.5 star is broken. For one, not much happens. Young upstart writer (Zuckerman) shows up at home of famous older author (Lonoff) and falls for mysterious young groupie girl who likes daddy-types.
  
  One house. One night. One morning. Done. Oh. And, from the frantic imagination of Z-man, one hell of a cameo by Anne Frank, setting up one of the funniest lines about overzealous Jewish parents you'll ever read.
  
  RIP, good Mr. Roth. This one was for you.
• 
  Aylin

  Genç yazar Nathan, kırsalda inzivaya çekilmiş büyük yazar Lonoff’un evine konuk olduğu sırada yazarın evliliğindeki çatırdamaya ve kendisini Anne Frank sanan genç bir kızın hikayesine tanık oluyor.
  Sanat-hayat ilişkisi, baba-oğul sürtüşmeleri, cemaat ile birey çatışması, bir yazar ile evli olmanın sıkıntıları gibi pek çok konuda ufuk açıcı saptamalar okuyoruz. Kitabın dili genel olarak akıcı ve yalın iken Roth zaman zaman koca bir paragraf süren öyle cümleler kuruyor ki paragrafların yanlarına kocaman “wow” yazdım. Semitizmin ve/veya Anti-Semitizmin yahudi gençlerin yaşamlarına etkileri Roth’un tüm kitaplarında derinde veya yüzeyde yer alıyor sanırım. Portnoy’un Feryadı kadar olmasa da bu kitabını da sevdim. Dahası Roth’un anlatıcılığını çok sevdim. Tavsiye ederim👌🏻
• 
  Chrissie

  This novel, the first in a series, is about and narrated by Nathan Zuckerman. He is by many said to be the author’s alter-ego. Be that as it may, Zuckerman speaks of a time more than twenty years ago--when he was twenty-three and the year was 1956. He was then an aspiring author with four published short stories to his name. He has an idol, the elderly fellow author E.I. Lonoff. He is seeking Lonoff’s advice. Would he agree to become Zuckerman’s mentor? A meeting is arranged in Lonoff’s home. Lonoff admires the young man’s work, and both have Jewish roots. When Zuckerman arrives, Lonoff, his wife and a beautiful young woman are there. Zuckerman is immediately struck by an infatuation for the pretty girl. Zuckerman and Lonoff talk. Zuckerman stays for dinner and the invitation is extended over the night. The story covers the events that occur before Zuckerman’s departure the following day.
  
  The art of writing is in my view the story’s central theme. Is it correct for an author to write of members of their own family? Even if names are not stated, readers may guess. Does a Jewish author have an obligation to portray Jews in a favorable light? The theme is carried further—how should an author behave toward a spouse? We observe the dysfunctional family situation in Lonoff’s household. We ask ourselves if Lonoff should be Zuckerman’s mentor. I have my doubts!
  
  Why only two stars? Because I do not like the book. For me it is merely OK. The questions raised are interesting, but it could have been told in a better way.
  
  The story is at times confusing, particularly when we are in Zuckerman’s head. He imagines the beautiful young woman to be Anne Frank. She has survived the holocaust! This is too bizarre for me.
  
  Zuckerman tell us of the events more than twenty years after they occur, and yet he fails to comment upon what he has in the interim leaned. Roth has forfeited an opportunity of making clear his views.
  
  Roth depicts Zuckerman’s sexual behavior crudely. His sexual drive is purely physical, without an emotional connection.
  
  I personally do not enjoy reading about dysfunctional family relationships. There is my final complaint.
  
  Malcolm Hillgartner narrates the audiobook. Had he paused at the appropriate places, had he emphasized important words, it would have been easier to understand the confusing parts. Words are clearly spoken, so the narration I am willing to give three stars. For me, he reads a bit too fast, but this can be easily adjusted.
  
  I have tried enough books by Roth. He is clearly not for me.
  
  
  *******************
  
  *
  Portnoy's Complaint 1 star
  *
  American Pastoral 2 stars
  *
  The Ghost Writer 2 stars
  *
  Zuckerman Unbound not-for-me
• 
  Amanda Byrne

  I have a feeling Roth is one of those authors you read to make yourself feel smarter and end up questioning the number of IQ points you have. For someone who's received as many awards and accolades as he has, I found this book to be, well, boring. Boy meets his idol, sees girl, wants girl. End of story. Big woo.
  
  Maybe I missed something here, on the greater role the story plays in regards to society or some such nonsense, which is what makes me think my intelligence may not be up to the task of figuring out what the hell was so great about this book.
  
  I tried reading The Human Stain some time ago. Dirty old man uses Viagra to get it on with a younger woman who doesn't know any better. Again. Big woo.
  
  Sigh. I guess I'll have to say unfortunately, Mr. Roth, you are not for me. And I did so want to feel smarter for having read your work.
• 
  Daniele

  Roth è da sempre il mio porto sicuro, quando vengo da un periodo di fiacca o stanchezza "letteraria" mi affido a lui.Non sbaglia mai, tocca sempre corde di mio interesse e scrive in modo divino. 
  
  Qui assistiamo alla nascita del suo alterego Nathan Zuckerman, certo non è un capolavoro, ma sfido chiunque a realizzare un racconto così interessante e affascinante in così poche righe.
  
  Purezza. Serenità. Semplicità. Isolamento. Tutta la concentrazione，l'opulenza e l'originalità riservate alla sfibrante，estasiata，trascendente vocazione. Mi guardai intorno e pensai：ecco come vivrò.
• 
  Ubik 2.0

  Il fantasma entra in scena
  
  "Lo scrittore fantasma" è un'opera minore nell'ambito della bibliografia di Philip Roth. Lo è da un punto di vista strettamente letterario, perchè riveste invece una certa importanza nella costruzione del personaggio di Nathan Zuckerman, principale alter ego dell'autore, presente (in veste di protagonista narrante come in questo caso, oppure figura secondaria più defilata) in una parte cospicua dei romanzi di Roth.
  
  Ciò è confermato dalla presenza come coprotagonisti di personaggi che ritroveremo addirittura 28 anni più tardi in quello che per ora è l'ultimo tassello delle storie di Zuckerman, "Il fantasma esce di scena", dove il vecchio scrittore mentore di Zuckerman E.I. Lonoff (pseudonimo che secondo alcuni cela l'identità di Bernard Malamud) compare nel ricordo e Amy Bellette addirittura di persona.
  
  "Lo scrittore fantasma" è tuttavia romanzo non particolarmente avvincente perchè incentrato in gran parte sul rapporto scrittore affermato/scrittore alle prime armi (Lonoff vs Zuckerman) e quindi denso di eruditi dibattiti e considerazioni sull'arte della scrittura che a lungo andare stancano, come quei film che hanno come soggetto un regista intento alle riprese di un film o quelle pièces teatrali che vertono sull'allestimento di una pièce teatrale: opere spesso autorefernziali e che fanno pensare che l'artista conosca e sappia ambientare compiutamente solo l'ambito in cui opera, la finzione più che la vita.
  
  Per fortuna risollevano le sorti del romanzo due capitoli centrali dove i due personaggi più giovani, Nathan e Amy, ricostruiscono nel passato reale o immaginario episodi della loro vita precedente: Nathan alle prese con i crucci del padre che tenta di farlo desistere dalla pubblicazione di un racconto ritenuto derisorio della comunità ebraica, Amy che rivive nella fantasia la possibilità di reincarnare addirittura uno dei principali miti letterari femminili della tragedia dell'olocausto.
• 
  Hilda hasani

  چهار ستاره برای ذهن عجیب غریب فیلیپ راث!
  کتاب خشم را قبلا از او خوانده بودم، آن هم عجیب بود به نوعی، اما عصیان و دیوانگی چهار شخصیت اصلی این کتاب بسیار به من چسبید.
  ۱-لونوف: نویسنده‌ی معروفی که دیسیپلین‌های سخت‌گیرانه‌ی خودش را دارد، بازنویسی می‌کند و می‌نویسد و می‌خواند. تمام زندگی‌اش همین است، او از به هم خوردن ملالش می‌ترسد، از تعویض چیزهای کهنه، حتی از فرار با معشوقه‌ی جوانش.
  ۲-نیتن زوکرمن: راوی داستان، نویسنده‌ای که تازه در حال دست و پا کردن اسم و رسمی است. او ستایشگر لونوف است، یک روز مهمان عمارت عجیب غریب اوست و ما در خیالات و ذهن عجیب نیتن چرخ می‌خوریم.
  ۳-ایمی: دختر کلیدی داستان، معشوقه‌ای که دلش می‌خواهد خیالات لونوف را فراهم کند و با او به فلورانس فرار کند. «آن فرانک» فرضی داستان با کلاه سفید منگوله دار بچه‌گانه‌اش!
  هوپ: زن لونوف، خانم خانه. آشپزخانه‌ی مطبوعی برای خود درست کرده تا از ملال ۳۵ ساله‌ی سایه انداخته بر زندگی‌اش فرار کند، اما گهگاهی به سرش می‌زند و قلیان می‌کند و چمدان می‌بندد که برود، اما او را از سرنوشت محتومش گریزی نیست.
  در یک جمله کل کتاب «نویسنده‌ی پشت پرده» در همین چهار شخصیت خلاصه می‌شود، جذاب نیست؟
  ولی ای کاش ای کاش مترجم مسلط‌تر بود تا ترجمه‌ی شیوا تری ارایه می‌شد.
  خط پایانی کتاب را برای خاتمه نقل می‌کنم :«همسری که تازه پنج دقیقه بود پا در مسیر سفری محتوم گذاشته بود، سفر در پی یافتن شان و جایگاهی که تا آن حد شکوهمند و عالی نباشد»
• 
  Ritinha

  Full bitaitanço soon.
• 
  Lobstergirl

  
  Philip Roth first introduces his alter ego, the 23-year-old aspiring writer Nathan Zuckerman, in The Ghost Writer. It’s 1956 and Zuckerman has managed to attract the attention of his literary idol, the Jewish immigrant writer E.I. Lonoff, who lives in an isolated farmhouse in the Berkshire Mountains of New England with his wife Hope. Zuckerman pays a visit and finds himself the object of flattering attention and conversation from the Babel-esque Lonoff. (“Because I could not bring myself to utter even the mildest obscenity in front of Lonoff’s early American mantelpiece…”) Also at the farmhouse during Zuckerman’s brief stay is Amy Bellette, a former college student of the famous writer who is organizing his papers and with whom Zuckerman becomes instantly obsessed. The novella takes place over the day and a half Zuckerman spends at the house, with several flashbacks. One of these flashbacks is to Newark, New Jersey, where Zuckerman has an argument with his father over a newly written story, “Higher Education.” The story describes the extended Zuckerman family feuding over an inheritance. Mr. Zuckerman feels that Gentiles reading it will come away with a very different impression than Jews, namely that Jews are greedy kikes. He enlists an old family friend and pillar of the community, Judge Leopold Wapter, to write Zuckerman and try to persuade him not to publish the story. Wapter and his wife compile a survey of ten (utterly hilarious) questions they’d like Zuckerman to ask himself about the story. The last one is “Can you honestly say that there is anything in your short story that would not warm the heart of a Julius Streicher or a Joseph Goebbels?” Zuckerman, and by extension all Jewish writers, are seen as bearing the responsibility for how Jews are perceived. Zuckerman is furious with his father and resents what he and Judge Wapter are trying to do. He concocts an elaborate fantasy that Amy Bellette is Anne Frank, who actually survived Belsen and came to America to live incognito, and that he will marry her. As the Ur-Jew, Amy-Anne will be the amulet that protects Zuckerman from all criticism that he is hurting the Jews. Zuckerman will be able to introduce Amy to his family and trump anything they might say.
  
  The first two chapters (which constitute approximately the first three-fourths of the novel) verged on perfection for me. Roth’s writing is calmly, unobtrusively spectacular:
  
  

  When I had recently raised [Lonoff’s] name before the jury at my first Manhattan publishing party – I’d arrived, excited as a starlet, on the arm of an elderly editor – Lonoff was almost immediately disposed of by the wits on hand as thought it were comical that a Jew of his generation, an immigrant child to begin with, should have married the scion of an old New England family and lived all these years “in the country” – that is to say, in the goyish wilderness of birds and trees where American began and long ago had ended.

  
  
  A flashback involving another Jewish writer, Felix Abravanel, and his much younger paramour (“after graduating from Sarah Lawrence, she had evidently continued her education at Elizabeth Arden and Henri Bendel”), is brilliant. Abravanel is said to be modeled on Saul Bellow. His “charm was like a moat so oceanic that you could not even see the great turreted and buttressed thing it had been dug to protect.” At a talk at the University of Chicago, Abravanel “had to pause at the lectern, seemingly to suppress saying something off the cuff that would have been just too charming for his audience to bear. And he was right. We might have charged the stage to eat him up alive if he had been any more sly and enchanting and wise.”
  
  The second chapter concludes with Zuckerman masturbating on Lonoff’s study sofa to thoughts of Amy Bellette, reading a Henry James short story about a writer with an adoring acolyte (to “expiate” for the masturbation), and eavesdropping through the floorboards on a possibly racy scene upstairs between Lonoff and Amy.
  
  My attention began to waver as Zuckerman launched on his Anne Frank fantasy, and I tried to figure out: is this in Amy’s head? Does Amy really believe this? Only after the Anne Frank fantasy chapter came to an end did I realize it was in Zuckerman’s head. The surreality of it felt a bit like a divergence from the path the novel had been on, but at the same time it seems necessary in order for Roth’s themes to hold together. The father, the father-child conflict, is a focal point: there is Zuckerman’s father and the recent conflict between them; Zuckerman is visiting Lonoff petitioning to be his spiritual son; Zuckerman’s fantasy includes Otto Frank as Anne/Amy Bellette’s “father” whom she betrays by refusing to make contact with him after surviving Belsen; and there is Lonoff as Amy Bellette’s substitute Otto Frank.
  
  I don’t know what a satisfactory ending would have been. Roth chooses to have Amy (who has possibly been having an affair with Lonoff, unless that was all in Zuckerman’s head…) leave her curatorial position, leaving Hope in her rightful place as wife. But as Zuckerman and Amy are sitting downstairs waiting to leave the farmhouse, Hope decides she is going to depart the marriage and let Amy have Lonoff. Lonoff repeatedly urges Hope to stay. Then Amy drives away, and Hope walks off into the snow with Lonoff following. The conflict between these two women was one of the things that made me uncomfortable in the novel, and I can’t say I really enjoyed either character, or this final chapter.
  
  Who is the Ghost Writer? There are three writers in the novel (if we exclude Abravanel): Lonoff, Zuckerman, and Anne Frank. Anne Frank is the only one of these who is dead, or a “ghost.” (Going a layer deeper, of course there are the conspiracy theorists who suggest Otto Frank ghostwrote Anne’s diary.) Is Lonoff the ghost, removed from the real world, isolated in the woods of the Berkshires? Is Zuckerman the ghost writer – in his father’s eyes, obligated to write positive things about the Jews – writing on behalf of ghosts – the dead of the Holocaust? One of the things the novel is about is what it means to be a Jew in America. Zuckerman notes early on that “my own first reading through Lonoff’s canon…had done more to make me realize how much I was still my family’s Jewish offspring than anything I had carried forward to the University of Chicago from childhood Hebrew lessons, or mother’s kitchen, or the discussions I used to hear among my parents and our relatives about the perils of intermarriage, the problem of Santa Claus, and the injustice of medical-school quotas (quotas that, as I understood early on, accounted for my father’s career in chiropody and his ardent lifelong support of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League).”
  
  I’m excited now to read the rest of the Zuckerman novels. I had begun with Exit Ghost, which was quite good. It contained references to Lonoff and Amy Bellette. Now when I reread it, I’ll understand them.