Operation Shylock: A Book That Changed Me

Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding? Philip Roth

Goodbye, Philip Roth

I dedicated my first long story (2005)—I think it is called a novel—to him, and he was an important character in my last long one (2018). Philip Roth! Dear, Philip Roth! I discovered him in 1994 at UBC’s bookstore, specifically as the writer of Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993). After reading this overwhelming and awe-inspiring novel, I had to read them all, buying every new one as soon as it was available, after having anticipated it with complete impatience. From Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories (1959) to Nemesis (2010), Roth embraced the essence of human existence from hapless birth to the twilight years in numerous forms, dispositions, and sympathies.

Nobel Prize in Literature

It is obscene that having practically won every literary award in the US and abroad, a few of them more than once, he was never awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, especially that he should have been the first one to also win it twice. He is gone now, since May 2018, but should be the first Nobel prize recipient since 1974 to receive it posthumously. After all, as Einstein stated: The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. I sent a brief message to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, but their reply was as slippery as their recent decisions. Please, send a message too!

English Literature at Its Best

Philip Roth was, is, and perhaps will always be the writer of the outright beauty of English literature and the English language. Hearing of his death had always been a dreaded eventuality. Another tower falling into the ground. Even Yann Moix, a candid French writer, during a weekly TV show in Paris, offered his heartfelt homage to Roth at the start of the show. And the French may know best when it comes to art, after the Greeks, of course. It hurts just writing about him. He is a loved figure in the best part of my life, although Greece has now become the second act, with my chest putting it at the top.

Operation Shylock: A Confession

Many readers and critics, not necessarily in that order, mention Portnoy's Complaint as Roth's seminal book, which it is in several ways. I would surely have read all his books had it been the first book of his that I had encountered instead of Operation Shylock. Yet, what drew me to purchase and read it was its title, as it alluded to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. I may have not been captivated by a title like Portnoy's Complaint. Luckily, Operation Shylock was the right first book, at least for me.

Roth explores the themes of identity and authorship, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian cul-de-sac, obscuring the border between reality and fiction, as Operation Shylock features Philip Roth as both the narrator as well as a character within the wonderfully complex story.

The narrator, also named Philip Roth, travels to Israel following the Gulf War (1991), meeting another man who claims to be Philip Roth, an imposter who is involved in a baffling plot known as Operation Shylock. This fake Roth appears to be thoroughly interested by the Israeli-Palestinian violent discord, positing a plan to palliate the pressures by following a novel inconceivable narrative.

Roth's narrator navigates through the inherent complexities of identity and authorship, questioning his own role as a Jew and a writer in varying orders, and sailing via philosophical discussions about history and politics, as well as the notion of both external and internal duality.

Operation Shylock is a must-read, like every other book by Philip Roth. His last one announced, at least for me, the end of a literary era, which could never be resumed or replicated, even if some advanced AI gets involved. Many famed and or highly regarded writers pale in comparison for good reason(s). Philip Roth was, is and always will be the greatest novelist from Earth, at least in the English language, although his art, even translated, will stand the so-called test of time, and space. Goodbye, dearest!