Classic and contemporary
Philip Roth talks to the Wall Street Journal about his new novel, The Humbling, and his recent reading habits:
What are you reading these days?Read more:
Mr. Roth: Mostly what I'm doing is rereading stuff that I read in my 20s, writers who were big in my reading life who I haven't read in 50 years. I'm talking about Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, Turgenev, Conrad. I'm trying to reread the best before... I die.
Any new writers that you would recommend?
I don't follow what's going on with modern fiction.
Who do you consider your peers?
I have quite a few peers. Don DeLillo. Ed Doctorow. Reynolds Price. Joyce Carol Oates. Toni Morrison. It's a pretty good generation. We just lost three giants in the last couple of years. Saul Bellow. Norman Mailer. And John Updike. American literature is a powerful literature. These people are all of the first rank.
Is there something wrong with American literature today?
American literature today is the strongest literature in the world. [Read More]
