USA: Writers; Philip Roth

National Educational Television and Radio Center · July 10, 1966

Philip Roth, who has won a National Book Award with his novel "Goodbye Columbus," discusses his literary goals and talks about a work in progress in this episode. He chats informally with novelist Jerre Mangione ("Mount Allegro," "The Ship and the Flame," and others) in this show recorded in Mr. Roth's Greenwich Village apartment. Mr. Roth describes "Goodbye Columbus" as a comedy of "a particular kind of Jewish affluence; the comedy of certain Jewish predicaments." His controversial work "Letting Go" he sees as treating the problem of "pursuing life and pushing one's way into it, of being drawn by the mystery of pain and suffering and deprivation and mistake and error." Roth's moral aspirations in his writing are considered. He also discusses the new major work he is completing, the response of critics to his books, his interest in playwriting, and his opinions of other American writers such as Saul Bellow and Bernard Malamud. USA Writers - Philip Roth is a production of National Educational Television. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) USA: Writers is part of an assessment of the state of the literary arts in the United States, which concentrates on contemporary prose writers across many genres. The half-hour episodes that comprise the series were originally recorded on videotape.