Philip Roth at 80 – quiz

How does Roth write?
1. At a lectern
2. With voice recognition software
3. In a hammock
4. Only before lunch
In which novel did Roth write: “He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - it makes no sense”?
1. The Human Stain
2. The Dying Animal
3. American Pastoral
4. The Plot Against America
Which character proclaims, “Enough being a nice Jewish boy”?
1. Alexander Portnoy
2. Nathan Zuckerman
3. Mickey Sabbath
4. Marcus Messner
Which critic found Sabbath’s Theater “distasteful and disingenuous"?
1. James Wood
2. Michiko Kakutani
3. Anthony Burgess
4. Germaine Greer
What city feature of Newark is named after Philip Roth?
1. A street
2. A mall
3. A plaza
4. A sex shop
What’s written on the post-it note stuck to Roth’s computer?
1. “The struggle with writing is over”
2. “Show, don’t tell”
3. “What would Nathan say?”
4. “Milk, bread, drycleaning"
Which star has NOT appeared in a film or TV version of a Roth novel?
1. Penelope Cruz
2. Ali MacGraw
3. Julie Christie
4. Nicole Kidman
What links Roth, Paul Auster, Richard Branson and Tony Soprano?
1. They're all Scorpios
2. Newark, New Jersey
3. They've all been criticised for sexism
4. None of them went to university
Which is Roth’s only sporting novel?
1. The Great American Novel
2. Everyman
3. American Pastoral
4. Our Gang
Roth's novel Deception is based on his relationship with whom?
1. Claire Bloom
2. An unnamed English woman
3. Edna O'Brien
4. His psychoanalyst

Solutions

1:A, 2:C, 3:A, 4:B, 5:C, 6:A, 7:C, 8:B, 9:A, 10:B

3 and above.

Oh well, as Roth would say: “All that we don’t know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.”
6 and above.

Not so bad. As Roth said: "Getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living."
10 and above.

Congratulations. "Hope breaks out.”