A short 1988 autobiography written in answer to criticism that all his novels are purely autobiographical.
It is very short only 195 pages and is broken down into 5 chapters , childhood, education , first loves etc.
He writes about everybody but himself which is strange for an autobiography, of course he is present but all the details are about others.
We have a big chapter on his girlfriend Josie - the angriest person he ever met- she was also mad, pulling little stunts like feigning pregnancies ( buying urine off pregnant woman). So he did what you normally do with a creature like this - he married her!! and sentenced himself to a few more years of hell.
There is nothing regarding his writing, it all seems to have just fallen into place for him, there doesn't appear to be any rejection from publishers, the novels just got published and he carried on meeting new women and having holidays at the beach.
Of course there are events in his life that have cropped up in his novels, there was however no mention of him abusing the family liver as in Portnoys Complaint.
But really as an autobiography this is a flop, as I have mentioned he is very good writing about other people but he keeps himself fairly well hidden.
Roth is an acquired taste and if you are a fan this is worth while, but if not I would wait for the biography and hopefully get a bit more information about the lad.
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