Philip Roth e l’Italia

Abstract

Philip Roth e l’Italia Silvia Raimondi (bio) Francesco Samarini. Philip Roth e l’Italia: Storia di un amore incostante. Longo Editore, 2022. 343 pp. 28 € hardback. To understand the ambitiousness of francesco samarini’s project, it is worth starting from the chosen title of his book. Writing about the relation between Philip Roth and Italy means in fact devoting oneself to an extensive and accurate analysis of the writer’s entire narrative oeuvre in search of traces of a link—more or less evident—with the peninsula, by analyzing interviews, letters, and personal or business contacts with overseas publishers. It also means approaching complex archival work, taking as reference published and unpublished documents preserved both in the United States and in Italy. And that is precisely what Samarini does in what is intended to be—and is—a rich and wide-ranging volume of scholarship, also remarkable for its originality, precision, and comprehensiveness in impartially examining the peculiarities of the Italian reception of Roth’s work. Far from being distinguished by the factiousness and superficiality present in some of the numerous articles and critical essays on Philip Roth’s enormous fame in Italy (mostly highlighted by critic Paolo di Paolo in a piece published for L’Espresso), Philip Roth e l’Italia: Storia di un amore incostante functions thus as a non-rhetorical and in-depth study that constitutes “an interesting observatory” (Samarini 7)1 to investigate both the production of the American author and his reception overseas. What therefore particularly emerges from Samarini’s work, and immediately impresses the reader, is the breadth of its analysis—even more evident by looking at the organization of the book itself. After a brief introduction aimed at outlining the areas of research, the main corpus of the volume consists of nine chapters, which range from Roth’s publishing history and his early days to addressing some specific thematic topics, such as the presence of Italy and Italians in his writing. These do not “merely” examine the existing connections between Roth and Italy, but also have the purpose of covering the biography of the American writer, following his life chronologically starting with 1958/1959 (the publication date in America of Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories). Specifically, chapters II through VIII provide exhaustive biographical information, covering relevant aspects of the writer’s personal [End Page 104] and professional life—both in Italy and America. These include Roth’s literary origins (chapter II); the publication of Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) and the positive and negative reviews associated with it (chapter III); the consequences of Roth’s public success between 1971 and 1978 (chapter IV); the difficulties he faces between 1979 and 1989 (chapter V, in which the writer’s friendship with Primo Levi is also discussed); his “stagnation” and subsequent “resurrection” following the publication of works such as American Pastoral (1997), The Dying Animal (2001), and Nemesis (2010) (chapters VI and VII) until the phase following his death (chapter VIII: “Dopo la scrittura e dopo la morte: 2012–2020”). The last chapters address issues such as Roth’s reception in Italian authors (chapter IX) and the occurrence of Italy, Italians, and Italian Americans in his work (chapter X). The conclusion (chapter XI) is followed by a lengthy appendix, which lists in full and in chronological order 54 documents, most of them unpublished (chapter XII). In the panorama of Roth Studies, Philip Roth e l’Italia deserves special prominence. Numerous are its merits. The first and most evident element is the ability of the author to combine a chronological path (tracing Roth’s biography and writing activity) with a thematic one. It is in fact the presence of these two distinct “coordinates” that allows even the least experienced reader to follow the discourse on Roth’s success, learning fundamental information about his accomplishments, publishing issues, and the reception of his works—at home and abroad. To the expert reader, on the other hand, this book offers the opportunity to engage with themes usually little explored by critics. Indeed, alongside the information provided in chronological order and aimed at retracing salient moments in Roth’s life (from his early publications and his travels to...