Much has been written about Roth's motivations behind telling this story. One remains in awe of Roth's undiminished ability to mine his own experience, augmented by prodigious research, to turn out superb, universal novels like I Married a Communist. I Married a Communist by Philip Roth About the Book Ira Ringold grew up a Newark roughneck, blighted by a violent history from which he is always in flight. It isn't even close. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award three times. This is the last billet about I Married a Communist by Philip Roth. I Married a Communist Philip Roth, Author Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) $26 (336p) ISBN 978-0-395-93346-6. I Married a Communist by Philip Roth (2008) French title: J’ai épousé un communiste. are the delusions of many a leftist in his timeframe, and Roth's/Zuckerman's judgamental stance towards him does little in the way of making himself credible or, above all, understanable - an stance a serious writer should take towards _all_ his characters. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. Prose rolls along beautifully. I Married a Communist is a Philip Roth novel concerning the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, known as "Iron Rinn." Learn more about the program. Wagner was an anti-semite but much of his music remains hauntingly heavenly. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Please try again. I Married a Communist is an American tragedy as only Philip Roth can conceive-fierce and funny, eloquently rendered, and deadly accurate. He twice won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Posts about I Married a Communist written by JStafford. In 2005 The Plot Against America received the Society of American Historians’ Prize for “the outstanding historical novel on an American theme for 2003–2004.” Roth received PEN’s two most prestigious awards: in 2006 the PEN/Nabokov Award and in 2007 the PEN/Bellow Award for achievement in American fiction. The Nobel commission really blew it by not giving Roth the Literature prize. Unbeknownst to his new wife Nan (Day), Collins is a man with a hidden past. More By and About This Author. I Married a Communist is a brilliant novel, one of few recent novels I've read through nonstop for a long time. Unable to add item to List. The fact there are parents who are victims (and/or) martyrs to their children (and/or their cause(s)) is undeniable (so who needs the revenge spin?). You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. This is the story of a failed marriage; of toxic family relationships; of male adolescence and male role models and masculinity; of morality and its lack; of ageing; of literature; of anti-Semitism; of politics; of fanaticism; of hypocrisy; of betrayal. "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." This article about a 1990s novel is a stub. And at times it's easy to tell where he goes off the rails and lets bitterness get in the way of his words and the story. has been added to your Cart. However, Frame is portrayed fairly sympathetically in the novel. 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, who appeared in several earlier Roth novels, and who also figures in both American Pastoral and I Married a Communist (1998), two books that form a loose trilogy with The Human Stain. In many respects, the two most recent novels of Philip Roth represent a long meditation on Tolstoi's famous observation and suggest a common wellspring of the unhappy family narratives. I had read about the "revenge" factor in this Roth novel and perhaps because I wasn't quite familiar with the principals (on whom this book was supposedly based on), I ignored the negative spin and just enjoyed the story for what it was ... an invaluable lesson for all writers no matter their genre ... when Leo explains to Nathan why he should ignore the ideology and stick to the art, epiphanies (right or wrong) abound ... there was no putting this one down and the reward (for this reader) was all confirming. Only, I believe that, when Human Stain was High Tragedy through and through, as Roth takes his "hero"'s Coleman Solk's predicament very seriously, in "I married..." he tends to treat his anti-hero Ira Ringold's plight, this time, with an almost impreceptible farcical streak, a kind of lack of empathy that makes Roth's alter ego Zuckermann behave somewhat as a moralist aggrieved at the sinful humanity and its illusions. I Married a Communist is an American tragedy as only Philip Roth could write it. It's in the end a story well told and eminently readable. Linda Grant writes of the similarities between Claire Bloom and Eve Frame: Frame is a Jewish actress, so is Bloom. Ira tells the daughter to move out, Roth did the same. I Married a Communist finally saw release in Hollywood in late 1949, and then months later in New York. He has won the PEN/Faulkner Award three times. Novel by Philip Roth set in late 1990s rural New England. He is a Communist, and a In his heyday as a star - and as a zealous, bullying supporter of 'progressive' political causes - Ira marries Hollywood's beloved leading lady, Eve Frame. He died in 2018. It stars Robert Ryan, Laraine Day, Thomas Gomez and Janis Carter. Philip Roth has a way of presenting both sides of an argument in the context of his story that shows both the flaws of the argument (or person making it) as well as its strengths or truth. It tells the story of Ira Ringold, presumptive working class hero laid low and finally destroyed by the political and cultural forces let loose during the McCarthy Era. Loved it! An idealistic Communist, a self-educated ditchdigger turned popular performer, a six-foot six-inch Abe Lincoln look-alike, he marries the nation's reigning radio actress and beloved silent-film star, the exquisite Eve Frame (born Chava Fromkin). But don't let that stop you from reading on. Top 200 of all time 150 Essential Comedies. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. Is he our greatest novelist? In 1997 Philip Roth won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. This article is about the 1998 novel. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. I Married a Communist is the story of the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, a big American roughneck who begins life as a teenage ditch-digger in 1930s Newark, becomes a big-time 1940s radio star, and is destroyed, as both a performer and a man, in the McCarthy witchhunt of the 1950s. There's propaganda aplenty in RKO's I Married a Communist, the first of producer Howard R. Hughes's many anti-Red broadsides.Robert Ryan plays shipping executive Brad Collins, whose youthful flirtations with certain left-wing causes have made him ripe for plucking by … She argues I Married a Communist "is not a novel", but rather, "an angry, bitter, resentful mess by a man who might have taken another course."[2]. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. I Married a Communist is the story of the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, a big American roughneck who begins life as a teenage ditch-digger in 1930s Newark, becomes a big-time 1940s radio star, and is destroyed, as both a performer and a man, in the McCarthy witchhunt of the 1950s. It is none too flattering – indeed rather bitter. In this story of cruelty, betrayal, and revenge spilling over into the public arena from their origins in Ira's turbulent personal life, Philip Roth -- who Commonweal calls the "master chronicler of the American twentieth century" -- has written a brilliant fictional portrayal of that treacherous postwar epoch when anti-Communist fever not only infected national politics but traumatized the intimate, innermost lives of friends and families, husbands and wives, parents and children. Their glamorous honeymoon in her Manhattan townhouse is short-lived, however, and it is the publication of Eve's scandalous bestselling expose that identifies him as "an American taking his orders from Moscow". OTHER BOOKS. Roth goes as far as to put Tolstoi's words into the mouth of Murray Ringold, the high school English teacher who taught Roth's alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, the virtues of "cri-ti-cal thinking" and who, near the end of his life some fifty years later, unfolds the fate of his brother Ira, the radio personality "Iron Rinn" and young Nathan's boyhood mentor. I Married a Communist is an American tragedy as only Philip Roth can conceive...fierce and comical, eloquently rendered, and definitely accurate. Word Count: 264. In his heyday as a star -- and as a zealous, bullying supporter of "progressive" political causes -- Ira marries Hollywood's beloved silent-film star, Eve Frame. In 2011 he received the National Humanities Medal at the White House, and was later named the fourth recipient of the Man Booker International Prize. It previewed in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1949 under the title I Married a Communist but, owing to poor polling among preview audiences, this was dropped prior to its 1950 release. This is my third Roth book narrated by his alter ego narrator, Nathan Zuckerman. Whether it was Murray's decency or Nathan's naivety or Ira's iron will, the story flowed with passion start to finish. Set in the heart of the McCarthy era, the story of Iron Rinn's denunciation and disgrace brings to harrowing life the human drama that was central to the nation's political tribulations in the dark years of betrayal, the blacklist, and naming names. The Urban Legion: A legendary comedy (The Urban Legion Trilogy Book 1). The story is narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, and is one of a trio of Zuckerman novels Roth wrote in the 1990s depicting the postwar history of Newark, New Jersey and its residents. It seems to have been made purely by Howard Hughes in order to score political points, and the original title (I MARRIED A COMMUNIST) is telling in itself. During his service in World War II, though, he comes under the tutelage of a dedicated Communist, who makes him passionately political, newly committed to changing the world. I discovered – after reading it – that a key character is based on the author’s ex-wife, Claire Bloom. About I Married a Communist. I Married a Communist is the story of the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, a big American roughneck who begins life as a teenage ditch-digger in 1930s Newark, becomes a big-time 1940s radio star, and is destroyed, as both a performer and a man, in the McCarthy witchhunt of the 1950s. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime. She destroys Ira's career (unintentionally) after being manipulated by his enemy, Brydon Grant. The Woman on Pier 13 (I Married a Communist) Quotes. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, I Married a Communist (American Trilogy Book 2). This is one of the good Roth books (I really hate some of them) – well written, and with several important subjects addressed; McCarthyism, the failure of the American Left, and relationships between people with…um…issues. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2016. I Married a Communist is the story of the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, a big American roughneck who begins life as a teenage ditch-digger in 1930s Newark, becomes a big-time 1940s radio star, and is destroyed, as both a performer and a man, in the McCarthy witchhunt of the 1950s. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges, Or get 4-5 business-day shipping on this item for $5.99 Last Reviewed on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Of course, Ira is the kind of Stalinist windbag stalwart parading as a man of steel but also chasing at high bourgeois females, etc., etc.,that was regretfully far too common during the 1950s (and not only in the US) but then, his illusions (or should I say delusions?) I Married a Communist is the story of the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, a big American roughneck who begins life as a teenage ditch-digger in 1930s Newark, becomes a big-time 1940s radio star, and is destroyed, as both a performer and a man, in the McCarthy witchhunt of the 1950s. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEP 28, 1998 Disconcerting echoes of Roth's relationship with Claire Bloom, as revealed in her memoir, Leaving the Doll's House, haunt Roth's angry but oddly inert 23rd novel. 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