1
literary sense, a liar. I say so
not out of concern for middle–
class Jewry, but on the most
literary grounds. Any novel is
a lie unless it can tell some
truth of the human heart.
Roth, however, seeks only to
cheapen the people he writes
about. This motive is betrayed
both by his selection of detail
and by the kind of action that
goes into his plots. The direct
effect of his literary technique
is to reduce the people he is
describing to morons. Morons,
of course, are easier to write
about insofar as simple actions
lend themselves most readily to
moral judgment. Granted that
a novelist has a right to create
his own distorted world; still,
we must demand of him that
his distortions give us insight
into the world we know. Roth
is so eager to press for his
judgment that his distortions
are simply a matter of form and
convenience--i.e., false art.
I think most of us share Mr.
Roth's general conviction that
the blatant materialism of the
Jewish newly-rich is vulgar and
destructive of human values.
But to attack--even to lampoon
- this materialism in terms
that are convincing, the novelist
is obliged to convey an accurate
picture of what the Jewish
upper-middle-class world is like.
Roth does not come close to this
accomplishment; an "informed
761
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