For example, the passionate all-consuming figures that dominate his book are a far cry from the spartan, monkish writer who spends most of his time closeted in a small cell with a pen, a pad of paper and an Anglepoise lamp. In his personal habits he reminds one of his biographers, Hermione Lee, of a character in his novel, The Ghost Writer, who eats half an egg for breakfast, as more than that would be too much.One would expect Roth to be funny in person, and he is, with a Lenny Bruce-like ability to expand on a riff (or in Yiddish, a shpritz) to the point of comic genius. Hermione Lee says that "he makes people laugh more than any person in the entire world". In fact, one complaint voiced about his novels is that all the characters have the hyper-articulateness of their creator. Just look back at that quote given to Faunia Farley: who talks like that? Although Roth's novels are said to be in the realist genre, they are more than that.
They are vivid evocations of what it is to be alive and conscious at certain times and certain places, but not in words the characters themselves could ever be found to utter. In this, if in little else, Roth is more Faulkner than Updike.John Updike, with his Rabbit tetralogy, is the obvious point of comparison for Roth, although there are certainly interesting points of similarity and difference with his other great near contemporaries - Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer and Bernard Malamud. What makes Updike interesting is that alone among these novelists, he is not Jewish and for the most part he portrays an explicitly Christian world, one that contains plenty of churches and clerics.Yet, for all that, the work of both writers proves that there is still much truth in that old rule: in fiction the particular becomes the universal. For all their differences in psychology (Updike strikes me as essentially optimistic and benevolent; Roth pessimistic and misanthropic) and method (Updike's characters seem more independent of their creator), the rootedness of these writers works in their world and their intelligent appreciation of it redeems the writers' craft.In The Human Stain, Nathan Zuckerman relates a Clinton- related dream he had during the summer of 1998: it was "of a mammoth banner, draped dadaistically like a Christo wrapping from one end of the White House to the other and bearing the legend: A HUMAN BEING LIVES HERE". One can't help suggesting that it would be appropriate if there were a sign affixed over the door of the writer's shack in Connecticut, where Philip Roth has spent much of the past 10 years, bearing the legend: A WRITER LIVES HERE.LIFE STORYBorn19 March 1933, Newark, New Jersey, to Herman Roth and Bess Finkle Roth.FamilyMarried to Margaret Martinson in 1959; marriage ended with her death in 1968 Second marrage to Claire Bloom, actress; divorced in 1994. After the world was given a glimpse of Alastair Campbell's private diaries at the Hutton inquiry last week, an ambitious literary agent wrote to the Prime Minister's director of communications offering his services But Giles Gordon got a curt reply.
"Dear Mr Gordon, It won't surprise you to know I've no need of a literary agent. Yours sincerely, Alastair Campbell." After the world was given a glimpse of Alastair Campbell's private diaries at the Hutton inquiry last week, an ambitious literary agent wrote to the Prime Minister's director of communications offering his services But Giles Gordon got a curt reply. Yours sincerely, Alastair Campbell." A lethal mixture of humour and contempt, the letter was typical Campbell. It suggested that Tony Blair's right-hand man had no intention of publishing his memoirs. But it also pointed to an obvious fact: he would have little trouble persuading a publisher to take on what could be the best insight into the New Labour phenomenon.Mr Campbell has certainly made no secret of the fact that he was keeping a first-hand account of the highs and lows of the Blair era. Soon after Labour swept to power in 1997, he told the novelist and Labour supporter Robert Harris: "I'm going to make more money out of my diaries than you've made out of all your books." Given that the novelist made £1.8m on the American rights to his book Fatherland, the boast was a large one.Despite his £110,000 salary, Mr Campbell and his partner are not wealthy and he has often referred to his private penned thoughts as his "pension".Various prices have been put on the Campbell diaries, ranging from £1m to £5m, and there is no doubt he could make a lot from the newspaper serialisation of his memoirs, possibly more than £500,000 for long extracts. A publisher could offer a further £1m, a record for a political book.The Hutton inquiry whetted the appetite of publishers and the public, offering a tantalising insight into the late-night jottings and cabinet table note-takings Mr Campbell has made over the years.
