I Married a Communist – 4/5 Stars The second in the so-called American Trilogy which finds both Philip Roth and his sometimes alter ego Nathan Zuckerman reflecting on their own pasts and also the middle part of the 20th century. The Zuckerman novels tend to be fairly naval-gazing affairs and very episodic. The American Trilogy all put Nathan in the passenger seat as he talks with friends and acquaintances about their stories. The first, American Pastoral, deals with Nathan meeting back up with an old […]

I have had some very strong feelings at various times in the last 20 years or so, and while I do love political satire, I have to admit, there’s some truly terrible and bizarre political satire out there. Sometimes you get something wonderful like Veep, or you get something that maybe begins as satire or something like and grows into something more substantial like All the King’s Men and Billy Brammer’s The Gay Place. But other times you get something like Ian McEwan’s deeply embarrassing […]