An American Type

Discovered posthumously, this final novel by the author of the greatest American immigrant novel, Call It Sleep, reintroduces us to its protagonist, Roths alter ego, Ira, who abandons his controlling lover, Edith, in favor of a blond, aristocratic pianist at Yaddo.The ensuing conflict between his Jewish ghetto roots and his highflown, writerly aspirations forces Ira to abandon his family temporarily for the sunsoaked promise of the American West. Fastpaced but wrenching, set against a backdrop of crumbling piers, bedbuginfested SROs, and skyscrapers in glimmering Manhattan and seedy Los Angeles, An American Type is perhaps the last firsthand testament of the Depression, as well as a universal statement about the constant reinvention of American identity and the transcendence of love.