Philip Roth's new novel is marvellously rich, boisterously serious, dense, fizzing and formally audacious. More than with most novels, to review it is to betray it. This isn't inappropriate, since one of Roth's abiding themes is fiction's betrayal of life and the novelist's treachery to those who surround him. But prudent readers may prefer not to discover The Counterlife's intricate surprises in advance.

LRB 5 March 1987 | PDF Download