The Story Archive

The Ghost Writer

Philip Roth · 1979 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

In December 1956 a young writer, under attack from his own community for what he wrote about grasping Jews, drives into the Berkshires to pay homage to the reclusive master he has chosen as a literary father. Snowed in for the night, he overhears what he should not and builds an extravagant fantasy around the young woman staying in the house. The first of the Zuckerman books, and the one that gave Roth a narrator to work behind for thirty years.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalComing-of-Age
Theme
Art & CreationIdentity & SelfTraditionGuilt & Conscience
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
MentorEveryman
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeMetafiction
Symbol / motif
The Book / ManuscriptThe House
Conflict
vs Selfvs Society
Mode / tone
RealistIronicMetafictional
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues