And yet there were also other, mitigating elements in this little episode which ought not to be overlooked, and which along with much else happen to link its protagonist to the author of Patrimony. To complete the anecdote it is only pertinent to add that, largely on the strength of his reputation as an eminent Jewish intellectual, the same middle-class community whose works he contemned and had ever disdained to support quickly found a place for his father in one of its oversubscribed institutions and that he has gone on denouncing it to this very day.Ī commonplace enough occurrence. None of which had stopped him, however, from writing whole books sentimentally celebrating the supposed “integrity” of the Jews when they were poor and victimized, and attacking their “degradation” as soon as they became associated with the striving American middle class. With this man, who happened to call me one day for advice, it had long been a point of pride never to have sustained any connection of his own with organized Jewish life, and although educated about everything else in the world, he had conspicuously declined to educate himself about its culture, its traditions, or its modes of self-perpetuation. the gloriously pragmatic, unpredictable genius of Philip Roth's narrative gifts.There once was a well-known New York intellectual desperate to place his father in one of the old-age homes built and maintained by the city’s Jewish community. Such telling is a marvel of artful wit and vigor. Roth has looked past all comfort and condolence to find the truth-about himself and his father about death and the fear of it and about the absolute vulnerability to which love condemns us all.' - Chicago Tribune 'In a cunningly straightforward way, Patrimony tells one of the central true stories many Americans share nowadays. It smacks of honesty and truthfulness on every page.' - San Francisco Chronicle 'A deeply resonant portrait of a father and son. the gloriously pragmatic, unpredictable genius of Philip Roth's narrative gifts.' -The New York Times Book Review, 'A tough-minded, beautifully written memoir. Roth has looked past all comfort and condolence to find the truth-about himself and his father about death and the fear of it and about the absolute vulnerability to which love condemns us all.' -Chicago Tribune 'In a cunningly straightforward way, Patrimony tells one of the central true stories many Americans share nowadays. It smacks of honesty and truthfulness on every page.' -San Francisco Chronicle 'A deeply resonant portrait of a father and son. 'A tough-minded, beautifully written memoir.

Patrimony by Philip Roth