The Story Archive

I Married a Communist

Philip Roth · 1998 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

Ira Ringold, a ditch-digger turned radio star who plays Abraham Lincoln on a patriotic weekly broadcast, marries a silent-screen actress and carries his Communist convictions into a house that despises them. Decades later his brother, once Zuckerman's English teacher, spends six evenings telling the boy who idolised Ira how the marriage ended in a best-selling denunciation. Set in the blacklist years, the angriest of the American trilogy.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
PoliticalHistoricalPsychological
Theme
BetrayalIndividual vs SocietyLoyaltyPower & Corruption
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanScapegoatMentor
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeRise and Fall
Symbol / motif
The StageThe Book / Manuscript
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
RealistIronicTragic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

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