The world of literature says goodbye to Philip Roth, one of the greatest contemporary writers. The American author, eternal Nobel Prize winner, died at the age of 85 in a New York hospital due to heart failure. The news was confirmed by his agent, Andrew Wylie.
The masterpieces that deliver Roth to history are "Portnoy's Lament"and "American pastoral care”, work for which the writer won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. His works are considered an exploration profound and critical of American identity, focused on recurring themes such as sex, religion and morals and punctuated by iconic characters such as David Kepesh and Alexander Portnoy.
Born in New Jersey in 1933, Roth belonged to a Jewish petty bourgeois family and in his works he has explored that world with a realism that is always fused with a comic register and with a commitment to addressing difficult, sometimes crude themes, such as desire and hypocrisy.
Roth's literary debut dates back to 1959, the year of the publication of "Goodbye Columbus”. Ten years later the first great success arrived, "Portnoy's lament", which also earned him the label of scandalous writer for the ruthlessness with which he tackled the theme of pleasure using a tragicomic register. A style that delivered the image of Alexander Portnoy to the history of American literature.
With "American Pastoral", 1997, Roth devoted himself more directly to political-social observation, tracing a furrow in which other works were then inserted, from "I married a communist" to "The human stain".
In all, Roth has published over 30 books, translated into many languages. In 2009, the writer announced the end of his career as a novelist.
