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Title: Shakespearean
Review: "I Married a Communist" feels much like Roth's other recent novels (Sabbath's Theater, American Pastoral, The Human Stain). Indeed, each is a classic tragedy (think King Lear), with the life of the protagonist unraveling because of poor personal choices, conventionality, or unmet fears. Certainly, all of these books are brilliant and totally absorbing. But, in a literary way, the story in each is, basically, the torture of the main character. Here is some of my marginalia for "I Married a Communist", where poor Ira Ringold is destroyed: "We've heard Ira's rhetoric before. Yes, it conveys his state of mind. But what about the reader?" "Helgi is over the top. But this could happen." "In her rage, Eve totally misunderstands Ira." "Poor Ira. Even the nobodies he has befriended betray him." "Roth is unrelenting."
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