The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
In an interview with the Financial Times, the seasoned 78 year-old author, Philip Roth, has decidedly sworn off reading fiction by way of saying, “‘I’ve stopped reading fiction. I don’t read it at all. I read other things: history, biography.
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“I don’t go down wrong paths, I’d rather stare at the screen and delete until I’ve put something down that is working. So, I don’t discard material; I don’t have a lot of false starts or unfinished stories or novels lying around.
John Wraith’s penis is a neat literary device. It provides character depth and motivation, and is central to every plot twist in the book.REASON ONE
Rabbis get great seats. Or at least my brother does: for the last ten years or so, my older brother Steve has had a pulpit job at a large suburban temple in the Baltimore area. Many members of the congregation have a latent Jewish urge to impress their rabbi, to treat Steve well, and they’re only too happy to throw a few baseball tickets my brother’s way now and then.