Here We Are

March 15, 2020
A writer chronicles his long, intimate friendship with novelist Philip Roth (1933-2018). Roth was already considered one of America's most esteemed living novelists (two National Book Awards, among other honors) when Taylor, a founding faculty member of the New School's Graduate School of Writing, became acquainted with him in the mid-1990s. Roth's past had also been marked by two miserable marriages, scores of past lovers, and increasingly debilitating health concerns. He was irascible and mercurial yet always candid and authentic, and in this slim, affectionate memoir, Taylor perfectly captures the essence of Roth's charmingly enigmatic humor and complex behavior. He generously shares memories of their somewhat unexpected friendship, honing in on their quiet, often amusing moments together--e.g., Taylor convincing a reluctant Roth to sit through the classic Bette Davis chestnut Now Voyager despite Roth's more highbrow film interests. "In keeping with the unseemliness of my profession (as he would say) I'd been taking notes all along," writes Taylor. "A lot of conversation got squirreled away." The author liberally quotes Roth throughout, yet some passages seem to be derived from Roth's novels (a notes section would be helpful). Taylor was there for Roth throughout his declining years, and he poignantly reflects on this experience and what their friendship has meant to them both. "I can't be the first gay man to have been an older straight man's mainstay," he writes. "Philip had searched diligently for a beautiful young woman to see to him as Jane Eyre looked after old Mr. Rochester. What he got instead was me. The degree of attachment surprised us both. Were we lovers? Obviously not. Were we in love? Not exactly. Sufficient to say that ours was a conversation neither could have done without." A touching and entertaining portrait of Roth that is sure to delight his many readers.

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May 25, 2020
Taylor (The Hue and Cry at Our House) begins his loving “partial portrait” of his best friend and “chosen parent,” author Philip Roth, in 2018, when the ailing literary lion, nearing death, comforts Taylor: “I have been to see the great enemy, and walked around him, and talked to him, and he is not to be feared. I promise.” He meditates on Roth’s virtues and vulnerabilities: he had “insatiable emotional appetites... he seethed with loathing or desire,” Taylor writes. He was passionate about his beloved hometown of Newark, N.J., which he “endlessly rediscovered through alchemical imagination.” One of Roth’s more curious vulnerabilities, Taylor notes, was that, though hailed as a great sexual libertine of 20th-century literature, Roth was plagued by fears of disapproval “as acutely as any itch in the loins.” His irritants included bitterness about not winning a Nobel Prize, and disliking George Plimpton’s “supreme self-assurance.” Taylor weaves many of the pair’s lighter moments throughout, including their ritual Sunday night Chinese dinners and their spirited movie nights (Taylor preferred Hollywood classics; Roth was a Kirosawa and Fellini fan). “I’m not who I’d have been without him,” he concludes. This tender-hearted and eloquent paean to long-term friendships will hold special appeal among Roth fans.

June 12, 2020

In this beautifully written memoir, Isherwood Prize winner Taylor (The Hue and Cry at Our House) shares recollections of his nearly 20-year friendship with the late, great novelist Philip Roth (1933-2018). Taylor draws on personal anecdotes and conversations from the past two decades of Roth's life to capture the writer's voice in a far-ranging narrative that moves from allusions to Roth's fiction to his relationships with writers such as Saul Bellow and John Updike. Insights into personalities and obsessions are gained through the friends' numerous casual encounters, and while a sense of deep affection between the men permeates the text, Taylor's observations are neither sentimental nor uncritical. As Roth himself was a masterly, insightful observer, Taylor, too, understands his subject keenly. VERDICT Like Roth, Taylor is a terrific raconteur, and readers are likely to be as entertained by his opinions as those of the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. An eloquent and touching account that should appeal to all who appreciate the value of true friendship.--Herbert E. Shapiro, Boca Raton, FL

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