About:
Operation Shylock: A confession by Philip Roth takes place in the 1990s during a turbulent time in Israel. Mr. Roth is an American writer known for blurring fiction and reality.
- 398 pages
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0671703765
My rating for Operation Shylock – 3
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More Books by Philip Roth*
Thoughts:
This book is part memoir, part confession, and part spy thriller which uses philosophical debate and analysis to try and tell some sort of a story. And here lies the problem, the book is very convoluted where fact and fiction mix.
I really wanted to like Operation Shylock by Philip Roth and the book does have its highs, but all the pilpulim and internal monologues get in the way of, what could have been, a great story. I got the point of the “Fake Roth”, a tool for the internal contradictions we all carry with us with one fixed truth.
Besides the historical events that I lived, read, or learned about; the rest of the narration is unreliable. The ridiculous idea of diasporism probes into anxieties of Jewish survives and refugees.
I thought the book was full of anxiety, as if Mr. Roth had never got over his nervous breakdown. The narrative is convoluted, and overly forceful.
That is too bad, because the book could be very enjoyable, it asks important geopolitical questions which are still relevant these days. It’s still an interesting read and thought provoking but seemed to be without direction.
Synopsis:
Philip Roth (Real Roth) discovers that there’s an imposter in Jerusalem using his name (Fake Roth) preaching a radical doctrine of reverse exodus (diasporism). The fact that the Real Roth is recovering from a nervous breakdown doesn’t help.
The Real Roth flies to Jerusalem to face the Fake Roth during the trial of John Demjanjuk (the accused Nazi guard “Ivan the Terrible”) – an actual event.
Buy Operation Shylock from Amazon.com*
More Books by Philip Roth*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book
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