Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Tibor Tóth: The Golden Cradle: Philip Roth's Revision of the Golden Bough Tradition

The second story also tells us of Nathan Zuckerman's unhappy relationship with Lydia Ketterer and his 'flirtation with the insane.' In this story Zuckerman admits that he came to approach his and Lydia's life as some sort of fiction, but he refuses to interpret his life in a story, which is more 'facile' than The Wings of Dove. Gustave Flaubert's letter to Colet, Henry James's Preface to The Portrait of a Lady, Joseph Conrad's introduction to The Nigger of the ".Narcissus " are quoted at length by Zuckerman to explain his and his students' standing in the world, but these materials actually undermine the possibility of sound interpretation of the narrative situation. The second part of My Life as a Man entitled "My True Story" starts with a letter signed by Peter Tarnopol. Peter Tarnopol who is supposed to be the narrator shares with the reader the details of his miserable marriage in the third person singular. The 'narrative distance' thus implemented is partly explained by what we read in the last paragraph of the letter. Presently Mr. Tarnopol is preparing to forsake the art of fiction for a while and embark upon an autobiographical narrative, an endeavor which he approaches warily, uncertain as to both its advisability and usefulness. {M.L.A.M. 100-101) The 'autobiographical' quality of the text from now on imposes first person singular, but his book is interrupted by a number of letters. His sister invites him to stay with her and her family and Peter Tarnopol's answer follows. Peter Tarnopol insists on the idea that his existential problems can be interpreted through literature. "If in a work of realistic fiction the hero is saved by something as fortuitious as the sudden death of his worst enemy, what intelligent reader would suspend his disbelief?" {M.L.A.M. 112) Then he sends a copy of his book "Courting Disaster" intended to serve as a kind of apology for Nathan Zuckerman's attitudes in "Salad Days." Peter Taropol considers that the non-fiction narrative he is working on might be considered just 'the "I" owning up to its role as ringleader of the plot.' The narrative structure is further fragmented and complicated as Joan sends her brother a letter in which she encloses two letters, written by her friends Lane and Franny, respectively, which discuss Peter's fiction introduced by the line "Fiction does different things to different people, much like 132