By Nelson Pressley

Philip Roth， whose comic novel Portnoys Complaint brought him literary celebrity after its publication in 1969 and who was eventually hailed1 as one of Americas greatest living authors for the blunt force and controlled fury of his dozens of later works， died May 22 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 85.

His literary agent， Andrew Wylie， said the cause was congestive heart failure in confirming the death to the Associated Press.

Mr. Roths 1959 debut story collection， Goodbye， Columbus， earned him the first of two National Book Awards.2 He would publish 27 novels， two memoirs and several more story collections by the time he publicly retired from writing in 2012. His lifelong themes included sex and desire， health and mortality， and Jewishness and its obligations—arguably his most definitive subject， given the controversy surrounding his earliest works.

In later years， his focus shifted more frankly to the nation and its discontents， from the rise of Richard Nixon as a political figure in the early Cold War era to the sideshow of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in what became known as Mr. Roths “American Trilogy”： American Pastoral （1997）， I Married a Communist （1998） and The Human Stain （2000）.

“He at once talked about America and American-ness but filtered it through the history of the 20th century at large，” said Aimee Pozorski， an associate professor of English at Central Connecticut State University who had written extensively about Mr. Roth.

“He wrote about the American response to the Holocaust， but also about its effects in Israel and Central and Eastern Europe，” Pozorski said. “He could write about these international issues because he was truly cosmopolitan， a global citizen who was grounded by American culture.”

She called Mr. Roth “the voice of his generation.”

A 2006 survey by the New York Times Book Review of the best books since 1981 found an astonishing six of Mr. Roths novels among the top 22. Well into his senior years， he continued to win the highest laurels of his profession with new， evocative3 works. In 1993， his Operation Shylock： A Confession won the PEN/Faulkner prize； in 1995， Sabbaths Theater won the National Book Award； in 1997， American Pastoral won the Pulitzer Prize.4

His appeal was not limited to elite critical circles， drawing enthusiastic fans such as Bruce Springsteen， the rock musician. Speaking of Mr. Roths “American Trilogy，” Springsteen once observed， “To be in his 60s making work that is so strong， so full of revelations about love and emotional pain， thats the way to live your artistic life. Sustain， sustain， sustain.”

Philip Roth was born on March 19， 1933， to firstgeneration Americans—Herman Roth， an insurance salesman for Metropolitan Life， and his wife， the former Bess Finkel. They were Jews who “were and were not religious，” and they “didnt talk about the past. There was no remembering elsewhere，” he recalled in The Facts.

He winced5 when referred to as an American Jewish writer. “Growing up Jewish as I did and growing up American seemed to me indistinguishable，” he wrote， also in The Facts. “Id come from a small， safe， relatively happy provincial background—my Newark neighborhood in the thirties and forties was just a Jewish Terre Haute.”

Mr. Roth left Newark for Bucknell University in Pennsylvania mainly out of restlessness， to escape his familiar home town and his father.

“I wanted something difficult and dangerous to happen to me. I wanted a hard time. Well， I got it，”Mr. Roth said in 1984. （Explaining the notoriety6 of Portnoys Complaint and his own in an essay titled“Imagining Jews” for the New York Review of Books in 1974， Mr. Roth wrote， “Going wild in public is the last thing in the world that a Jew is expected to do.”）

At Bucknell， he edited the literary magazine， was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and conscientiously began to find his writers voice，7 ruthlessly critiquing a colleague in print and discovering “a flash of talent for comic destruction.”

After graduating from Bucknell in 1954， he received a masters degree in English the next year from the University of Chicago and served in the Army for a year （largely behind a desk in Washington）. He then returned to Chicago and taught English at his alma mater while writing fiction. An early admirer was novelist and future Nobel laureate Saul Bellow8， who told an interviewer that Mr. Roths stories “showed a wonderful wit and great pace.”

When Goodbye， Columbus was accepted for publication in 1958， Mr. Roth resigned his teaching post and moved to Manhattan， but the friction with his antagonists9 wasnt over.

In 1962， Mr. Roth shared a panel with Invisible Man author Ralph Ellison and Italian novelist Pietro di Donato during a symposium at Yeshiva University. Again he was denounced10 by questioners who thought he was undermining Jews. Mr. Roth later recycled the incident in The Ghost Writer， and he frequently said the standoff was formative.11

In 1973， Mr. Roth explained the double-edged sword of those early attacks：

“I might turn out to be a bad artist， or no artist at all， but having declared myself for art—the art of Tolstoy， James， Flaubert， and Mann，12 whose appeal was as much in their heroic literary integrity as in their work—I imagined I had sealed myself off from being a morally unacceptable person， in others eyes as well as my own.

“I think now—I didnt then—that this conflict with my Jewish critics was as valuable a struggle as I could have had at the outset of my career… I resented how they read me， but I was never able to complain afterward that they didnt read me； I never felt neglected.”

“Theres always something behind a book to which it has no seeming connection， something invisible to the reader which has helped unleash the writers impulse，” Mr. Roth said of Portnoys Complaint in the 1984 collection Writers at Work. “Im thinking about the rage and rebelliousness that were in the air， the vivid examples I saw around me of angry defiance and hysterical opposition. This gave me a few ideas for my act.”

Portnoys Complaint drew criticism from Jewish groups for its perceived ethnic stereotyping and from others for its sexual explicitness. But it also won praise from prominent reviewers for being playful and moving， a masterpiece on guilt. Writing in the New York Times， author and screenwriter Josh Greenfeld called it a “deliciously funny book， absurd and exuberant， wild and uproarious.”13

The acclaim for the Ghost Writer trilogy—with the writer Zuckerman viewed as a very close stand-in for his creator through Zuckerman Unbound （1981） and The Anatomy Lesson （1983）—rescued Mr. Roth once and for all from the “Portnoys” reputation as a clown prince of sexual provocation14.

“When all of those books were taken together， you had my story，” he said in the 2013 PBS documentary Philip Roth： Unmasked.

Yet earlier he had said： “Nathan Zuckerman is an act. Making fake biography， false history， concocting15 a half-imaginary existence out of the actual drama of my life is my life. There has to be some pleasure in this job， and thats it. To go around in disguise. To act a character. To pass oneself off16 as what one is not. To pretend. The sly and cunning masquerade17.”

“Am I Lonoff18？ Am I Zuckerman？ Am I Portnoy？” Mr. Roth asked in a 1981 interview. “I could be， I suppose. I may be yet. But as of now I am nothing like so sharply delineated19 as a character in a book. I am still amorphous20 Roth.”

菲利普·羅斯，1969年出版的喜劇小說《波特諾的怨訴》讓他享譽(yù)文學(xué)界，在之后的許多作品中，因其鈍力和有節(jié)制的憤怒而逐漸被公認(rèn)為美國在世的最偉大的作家之一。5月22日，菲利普·羅斯在曼哈頓一家醫(yī)院逝世，享年85歲。

他的文學(xué)經(jīng)紀(jì)人安德魯·懷利向美聯(lián)社證實(shí)了羅斯因充血性心力衰竭而辭世的消息。

羅斯憑借1959年出版的處女作小說集《再見，哥倫布》獲得了美國國家圖書獎(jiǎng)，之后，他又獲得過一次該獎(jiǎng)。2012年封筆之前，羅斯共出版了27部小說、兩本回憶錄和數(shù)本小說集。他堅(jiān)持一生的寫作主題包括性和欲望、健康和死亡、猶太人身份和其責(zé)任，這些可以說是他作品中最明確的主題。羅斯的早期作品曾引起很大的爭(zhēng)議。

在他的后期作品中，羅斯的關(guān)注點(diǎn)轉(zhuǎn)向更坦誠地揭露國家事務(wù)及其陰暗面，從冷戰(zhàn)初期理查德·尼克松作為政治新星的升起到克林頓-萊溫斯基性丑聞事件，組成了羅斯的“美國三部曲”：《美國牧歌》（1997）、《我嫁給了共產(chǎn)黨人》（1998）以及《人類的污穢》（2000）。

“他談?wù)撁绹兔绹?，但是總體上用20世紀(jì)的歷史過濾了，”中康涅狄格州立大學(xué)的副教授艾美·波佐斯基如是說。艾美寫過很多關(guān)于羅斯的文章。

“他在作品中描寫美國人如何看待二戰(zhàn)期間德國納粹對(duì)猶太人的大屠殺，同時(shí)也寫大屠殺對(duì)以色列和中東歐造成的影響?！辈ㄗ羲够f，“羅斯之所以能在寫作中駕馭這些國際問題，是因?yàn)樗钦嬲氖澜缰髁x者，植根于美國文化的世界公民?！?/p>

她將羅斯稱為“他那一代人的聲音”。

2006年，《紐約時(shí)代書評(píng)》評(píng)選出自1981年以來的最佳書籍，位居榜首的22部小說中，羅斯的小說就占了六本。即便年事漸高，他仍以新穎且能夠引起共鳴的作品頻獲文學(xué)最高獎(jiǎng)。1993年，他憑借《夏洛克在行動(dòng)：自白》問鼎國際筆會(huì)/?？思{文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)；1995年，《安息日的劇院》獲美國國家圖書獎(jiǎng)；1997年，《美國牧歌》獲普利策文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。

他的作品不僅得到了評(píng)論界精英的關(guān)注，也同樣吸引了諸如搖滾音樂家布魯斯·斯普林斯汀這樣的狂熱粉絲。談到羅斯先生的“美國三部曲”時(shí)，斯普林斯汀曾評(píng)論道：“步入耳順之年的羅斯，其作品風(fēng)格愈加厚重，充滿關(guān)于愛和情感之痛的領(lǐng)悟。這才是度過藝術(shù)人生的方法。讓藝術(shù)之樹常青?！?/p>

菲利普·羅斯出生于1933年3月19日，父母是第一代美國移民。父親赫爾曼·羅斯是大都會(huì)人壽保險(xiǎn)公司的一名推銷員，母親是貝絲·芬克爾。羅斯在《事實(shí)》中這樣回憶父母：作為猶太人，他們有信仰，又沒有信仰。他們從不談?wù)撨^去，因?yàn)橛洃洘o處可尋。”

當(dāng)提到他是猶太裔美國作家時(shí)，他皺了皺眉。“對(duì)我來說，猶太人和美國人這兩種身份幾乎難以區(qū)分，”羅斯在《事實(shí)》中寫道，“我來自一個(gè)安全、相對(duì)快樂的小地方，在三四十年代，我居住的紐瓦克社區(qū)只是一個(gè)猶太人聚居地?！?/p>

因?yàn)椴话灿诂F(xiàn)狀，想逃離熟悉的家鄉(xiāng)和父親，羅斯離開紐瓦克，前往賓夕法尼亞州的巴克內(nèi)爾大學(xué)。

“我希望一些困難危險(xiǎn)的事情發(fā)生。我需要一點(diǎn)艱難時(shí)光。好吧，我真如愿了?！绷_斯在1984年如是說。（在1974年為《紐約書評(píng)》寫的題為《想象猶太人》的文章里，羅斯對(duì)《波特諾的怨訴》和自己的聲名狼藉作了如下解釋：“當(dāng)眾發(fā)狂是猶太人最不希望做的事情?！保?/p>

在巴克內(nèi)爾大學(xué)，羅斯編輯了一本校園文學(xué)雜志，加入了美國大學(xué)優(yōu)等生榮譽(yù)學(xué)會(huì)，開始認(rèn)真地尋找自己作為作家的聲音，并無情地用文字批判一位同行，初露“一絲喜劇破壞力的天賦”。

1954年，羅斯從巴克內(nèi)爾大學(xué)畢業(yè)。次年，他獲得芝加哥大學(xué)英語文學(xué)碩士學(xué)位并參軍一年（絕大多數(shù)時(shí)間是在華盛頓的辦公室里度過）。隨后，羅斯返回母校芝加哥大學(xué)教授英文，同時(shí)進(jìn)行小說創(chuàng)作。作家索爾·貝婁，后來的諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)獲得者，早年起就很欣賞羅斯。他曾在接受采訪時(shí)表示，羅斯的小說“展現(xiàn)了無比的睿智和極強(qiáng)的節(jié)奏”。

1958年，出版社同意出版小說《再見，哥倫布》，羅斯辭去教職，搬去曼哈頓居住，但他和反對(duì)者的摩擦并未就此終結(jié)。

1962年，羅斯在耶什華大學(xué)的一次研討會(huì)中，與《隱形人》作者拉爾夫·埃里森和意大利作家皮埃特羅·多納托一起參加小組討論。會(huì)上，羅斯再次遭到提問者的譴責(zé)，認(rèn)為他損害了猶太人的名譽(yù)。羅斯后來在《鬼作家》中還原了該事件，并不斷強(qiáng)調(diào)那次僵局對(duì)他的影響是關(guān)鍵性的。

1973年，羅斯這樣解釋早年這些抨擊的雙刃劍作用：

“我可能會(huì)成為一個(gè)不好的藝術(shù)家，或者根本成不了藝術(shù)家。但既然選擇了投身藝術(shù)——托爾斯泰、詹姆斯、福樓拜和曼的藝術(shù)，他們的吸引力在于其英雄般的文學(xué)正直性，也在于他們的作品——我想我已經(jīng)拒絕成為一位道德敗壞的人，不管在他人看來，還是我的自我感覺，都是如此?！?/p>

“現(xiàn)在我認(rèn)為——過去我沒這么想——我與猶太批評(píng)家的沖突對(duì)我來說是寶貴的經(jīng)歷，這就像剛開始寫作時(shí)我的掙扎一樣……我痛恨他們那樣解讀我的作品，但至少我不用抱怨他們根本不讀我的作品；我從未感到自己的作品遭受冷遇?！?/p>

“一本書的背后總有一些看似無關(guān)，讀者無法解讀的東西，來幫助作家釋放情感，”羅斯在1984年作品集《工作中的作家》中這樣談?wù)摗恫ㄌ刂Z的怨訴》。“寫這本書時(shí)，我腦子里想著周遭的憤怒和反叛，我身邊那些憤怒反抗和歇斯底里反對(duì)的活生生的例子。它們都給了我創(chuàng)作的靈感?！?/p>

《波特諾的怨訴》因其感知的種族刻板印象遭到猶太群體的批評(píng)，也因其赤裸裸的性描寫飽受非議。不過，也有知名評(píng)論家對(duì)它大加褒獎(jiǎng)，認(rèn)為這部作品既有趣又感人，堪稱一部關(guān)于罪的杰作。作家和編劇喬?！じ窳址茽柕聻椤都~約時(shí)報(bào)》撰文稱《波特諾的怨訴》是“一本非常有趣的書，荒誕又充滿生氣，狂野又讓人捧腹大笑?！?p>

《波特諾的怨訴》讓羅斯被稱為性挑逗的小丑王子，而《鬼作家》三部曲贏得的贊譽(yù)成功挽救了羅斯的名聲。三部曲中，《被釋放的祖克曼》（1981）和《解剖課》（1983）中的主人公小說家祖克曼被認(rèn)為非常接近作家本人。

在2013年美國公共電視網(wǎng)紀(jì)錄片《走近菲利普·羅斯》中，羅斯說：“把我的全部作品聯(lián)系在一起，你們就知道我的故事了?！?/p>

不過，早前他也曾說：“內(nèi)森·祖克曼只是一出表演。編造假的傳記、錯(cuò)的歷史，從我生活中真實(shí)的劇情里調(diào)制出半想象的存在，這才是我的生活。得給寫作找點(diǎn)樂趣，但也僅此而已。也就是說喬裝打扮之后出門。去扮演一個(gè)不是自己的角色。去偽裝。狡猾奸詐的掩飾?！?/p>

“我是洛諾夫？還是祖克曼？抑或是波特諾？”羅斯在1981年的一次采訪中問道?！拔铱赡軙?huì)是他們，我覺得，現(xiàn)在還不是。不過，現(xiàn)在的我絕不是一本書里詳細(xì)描述的一個(gè)人物。我只是無法定義的羅斯?！?/p>

1. hail： 稱贊，贊揚(yáng)。

2. debut： 初次表演，初次露面；National Book Awards： 美國國家圖書獎(jiǎng)，美國文學(xué)界的最高榮譽(yù)之一，它與普利策小說獎(jiǎng)被視為美國最重要的兩個(gè)文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)。該獎(jiǎng)始于1950年，每年舉行一次，頒發(fā)給前一年出版作品的美國作家。

3. evocative： 引起記憶的，喚起感情的。

4. PEN/Faulkner prize： ?？思{文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)，又稱為國際筆會(huì)/?？思{文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)，由美國國家圖書獎(jiǎng)得主瑪利·李·司徒（Mary Lee Settle）于1980年創(chuàng)立；the Pulitzer Prize： 普利策文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。該獎(jiǎng)不是一個(gè)獨(dú)立的獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，而是美國普利策獎(jiǎng)眾多分支中的一個(gè)。約瑟夫·普利策在去世前第七年（1904年）立下遺囑，將自己的財(cái)產(chǎn)捐獻(xiàn)給美國哥倫比亞大學(xué)，由他們建立一個(gè)新聞學(xué)院。這筆高達(dá)200萬美元的款項(xiàng)中，有四分之一被用來設(shè)立獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，后成為普利策獎(jiǎng)的基金。

5. wince： （因疼痛或因看到、聽到或記起不快之事而）皺起臉，皺眉蹙額。

6. notoriety： 惡名，臭名昭著。

7. Phi Beta Kappa honor society： 美國大學(xué)優(yōu)等生榮譽(yù)學(xué)會(huì)，是美國歷史最悠久的學(xué)術(shù)榮譽(yù)機(jī)構(gòu)，該名稱來源于希臘文，意為“智慧、學(xué)習(xí)和知識(shí)引領(lǐng)生活”，該學(xué)會(huì)旨在倡導(dǎo)卓越文理教育，會(huì)員為美國大學(xué)中最優(yōu)秀的學(xué)生；consicentiously： 認(rèn)真地，盡責(zé)地。

8. Saul Bellow： 索爾·貝婁（1915—2005），美國作家，被稱為美國當(dāng)代文學(xué)發(fā)言人，于1976年獲得諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。

9. antagonist： 敵手，反對(duì)者。

10. denounce： 公開指責(zé)，正式指控。

11. standoff： 僵局，對(duì)峙；formative： （對(duì)某事物或性格的發(fā)展）有持續(xù)重大影響的。

12. Tolstoy： 列夫·托爾斯泰（1828—1910），19世紀(jì)中期俄國批判現(xiàn)實(shí)主義作家、思想家，哲學(xué)家，代表作有《戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)與和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》、《復(fù)活》等；James：亨利·詹姆斯（1843—1916），19世紀(jì)美國繼霍桑、麥爾維爾之后最偉大的小說家，也是美國乃至世界文學(xué)史上的大文豪，被一致認(rèn)為是心理分析小說的開創(chuàng)者之一，他對(duì)人的行為的認(rèn)識(shí)有獨(dú)到之處，是20世紀(jì)小說的意識(shí)流寫作技巧的先驅(qū)；Flaubert： 居斯塔夫·福樓拜（1821—1880），法國著名作家，其成就主要表現(xiàn)在對(duì)19世紀(jì)法國社會(huì)風(fēng)俗人情進(jìn)行真實(shí)細(xì)致描寫記錄的同時(shí)，超時(shí)代、超意識(shí)地對(duì)現(xiàn)代小說審美趨向進(jìn)行探索；Mann： 托馬斯·曼（1875—1955），德國小說家和散文家，是德國20世紀(jì)最著名的現(xiàn)實(shí)主義作家和人道主義者，受叔本華、尼采哲學(xué)思想影響。

13. exuberant： 充滿生氣的；uproarious： 引人捧腹大笑的，非?？尚Φ摹?/p>

14. provocation： 挑釁，挑撥。

15. concoct： 虛構(gòu)，杜撰。

16. pass off： 冒充。

17. masquerade： // 掩藏，掩飾。

18. Lonoff： 羅斯《鬼作家》中的人物。

19. delineate：（詳細(xì)地）描述，描畫。

20. amorphous： // 無固定形狀（或結(jié)構(gòu)）的，不規(guī)則的。