I Married A Communist

I am not an expert in such things, but I reckon that Philip Roth is probably the best writer in the world right now. This is a superbly crafted telling of how the McCarthy era crushed people in an absurd parody of American values, ranging in tone from lament to rage to despairing laughter. It is typical of Roth that instead of creating a central character with whom it is simple to sympathise, Ira Ringold is conniving, destructive towards himself and others and, yes, a communist.

As in several of his recent novels, Roth tells his tale through the proxy of Zuckerman, his regular narrator. The tale then unfolds in a nuanced way through a series of layers - Roth/Zuckerman/Reported Speech/Second Layer of Reported Speech. I love this kind of stuff, which goes back to our earliest literature; think of The Arabian Nights, The Decameron or The Canterbury Tales. It takes a great author to make it work this well, and Roth is certainly that.