ON THE EVE of publishing his Philip Roth biography, Oklahoma City native Blake Bailey talks to ArtDesk about authors, alcohol, and fellow Oklahoma native Brad Pitt.
ArtDesk: Hi, Blake! We are so proud of all of your literary accomplishments. You have what we consider an opus coming out soon, your fifth book, Philip Roth: The Biography. It’s been called the most anticipated book of 2021 by many entities, including Literary Hub and the Oprah Magazine. What is your favorite Roth book?
Blake Bailey: Hard to say. He was such a protean writer over the course of his fifty-five-year career that comparing certain of his novels is really a matter of apples and oranges. I’ll give you five titles (bearing in mind that he published thirty-one books in all, and a lot more than five are wonderful): Goodbye, Columbus; Portnoy’s Complaint; The Ghost Writer; Patrimony; and American Pastoral.
ArtDesk: Among others, you’ve written about John Cheever and now Philip Roth. In what ways did you find them to be alike? Did you find yourself able to relate to them?
Blake Bailey: Fun fact: Cheever and Roth knew and liked each other, and both had what is commonly called an addictive personality. (Roth would have dismissed that as psychobabble.) Cheever was addicted to alcohol, however, and Roth was a nice Jewish boy who hardly touched the stuff. So I’ll let you guess his addiction.
ArtDesk: What is the most unusual source you used for the Roth biography?
Blake Bailey: One of Roth’s longtime mistresses (the model for the insatiable Drenka in Sabbath’s Theater) composed a 101-page remembrance of their affair for my eyes only. I wasn’t allowed to copy it or take it out of the room but had to read it in her presence and leave it in my chair when I went to the bathroom.
ArtDesk: During the writing process, have you ever felt as if you are taking on the persona of the author you are writing about?
Blake Bailey: That would be exhausting in Roth’s case. No, not exactly, though I think I have an affinity (albeit in different ways) for each of my subjects. While working on Roth, I often consulted a photo of him with a fish head over his nose, the better to remind me that he was, after all, a funny guy.
ArtDesk: Do you have any desire to psychologically analyze or evaluate the life choices and trajectory of your subjects?
Blake Bailey: I would say my default mode, at least toward their worst behavior, is a kind of deploring amusement. For the most part, though, the behavior speaks for itself without my pontificating too much about it.
ArtDesk: While writing about Cheever or Roth, did you ever hate your subjects? Did you love them?
Blake Bailey: Let’s say I’m fond of them, and no, I never hate them. I was fond enough of Philip Roth to visit him when he was dying.
ArtDesk: Who would play you in a movie?
Blake Bailey: I’d like to say Brad Pitt, we’re almost exact contemporaries after all, but probably a younger Steve Martin would be nearer the mark.
Philip Roth: The Biography will be published on April 6, 2021. In addition to his books about Roth and Cheever, Bailey has also published biographies of Richard Yates and Charles Jackson. Philip Roth personally appointed Bailey as his biographer and provided full access to archives and extensive interviews, including with himself and his closest friends, family, and colleagues.
