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Editorial Review:
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.Commonweal calls the "master chronicler of the American twentieth century--has written a brilliant fictional protrayal of that treacherous postwar epoch when the anti-Communist fever not only infected national politics but traumatized the intimate, innermost lives of friends and families, husbands and wives, parents and children.Iron Rinn (né Ira Ringold) is a self-educated radio actor, married to a spoilt, rags-to-riches beauty, silent-film star Eve Frame (née Chave Fromkin). He is a Communist, and a "sucker for suffering," locked into the cycle of violence from which he has emerged. She has risen by assiduous imitation of what is "classy"--which seems to include a wide swathe of anti-Semitism--and ultimately denounces her husband as a Soviet spook. And who would be the narrator of this McCarthy-era meltdown? None other than Philip Roth's longtime alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, who learns the full tragedy several decades later, owing to a chance encounter with Ira's brother: "I'm the only person living who knows Ira's story," 90-year-old Murray Ringold tells Nathan, "you're the only person still living who cares about it."
Characteristically, Nathan also discovers that his own story was bound up with the blacklistings and ruined careers of the immediate postwar period. It seems that he had been tainted by his association with the Ringolds--Murray was in fact his high-school teacher--and was denied the Fulbright scholarship he deserved. "They had you down for Ira's nephew," Murray tells Nathan. "The FBI didn't always get everything right." Roth's acerbic style and keen eye for emotional detail goes to the heart of this moment of high tragedy in which the American dream was damaged beyond repair. --Lisa Jardine
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Marvelous lessons for writers in this tomb:
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... more info
La novela de formación:
"Me casé con un comunista" es una novela en que Philip Roth explora la temática de la caza de brujas, que tuviera lugar en los Estados Unidos durante la época del senador McCarthy (años 40 y 50). En este contexto, Ira Ringold, protagonista de la obra, es un excombatiente de la II Guerra Mundial que actúa como propagandista de la causa comunista. En consecuencia, esta es una historia de lealtades y de traiciones. Todos los que están con él, lo abandonan en... more info Clever and thoughtful:
Roth's subject and style in his later novels has devolved into political/social/personal interrogations of post WW II America; this one is insightful, original, masterfully written, clever, and authoritative. Roth has stated the significant aspect of the novel is 'voice' and this is a perfect example of it. There are fascinating ironies in the book that entwine to develop a multi-layered novel of a variety of Americans caught up in competeting allegiances of the 1940's and 1950's. It is a study in... more info Passion, betrayal, and the blacklist:
The life of Ira Ringold, a Communist activist-cum-radio star who was betrayed to the blacklist by his actress wife, is reflected upon by the last two people alive who knew him--his brother Murray, a former English teacher, and Nathan Zuckerman, who grew up idealizing him. The result is a complex and fascinating novel about the nature of human passion, betrayal, and much more.more info Similar Products:
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