Operation Shylock
I stepped away from the world of Philip Roth for several years. When I came back to read Operation Shylock I was quickly reminded how acquired a taste that world is. Not everyone can keep up with Roth’s long-winded wit and intellectualization. Autobiographical and fictional elements are closely interwoven in his novels, and in this one, the personal stakes are higher than usual; so much of this story can be traced back to Roth’s life at the time that I found myself wondering how much of this was a memoir and how much pure creation.
The story takes place mostly in January 1988 at a time when Roth just pulled himself out of a terrible experience with a prescription drug called Halcion. He gets a call from a cousin in Israel who tips him off about someone impersonating him there. What transpires from this point on figures as another mental nightmare for Roth.
His then-wife, actress Claire Bloom, insists that he not get involved with the fake Philip Roth. Instead of heeding his wife’s advice, Roth tactically sets up an interview with his friend Aharon Appelfeld, a popular Israeli writer, and flies to Tel Aviv. While Roth does meet with Appelfeld, his intentions are largely set on the pursuit of the other “Roth.” The touch-and-go relationship that forms between the two Roths is the meat of Shylock, but there’s a bunch of fascinating asides relating to a manipulative Israeli man named Smilesburger, who tries to pay off Roth to not publish this book, as well as a comely Polish nurse named Jinx who considers herself a recovering anti-Semite.
Roth’s super personal re-telling of his experience in Israel makes you tense up whenever something goes awry for him. It is an unbelievable story when discussed in generalities, but the way Roth stages every plot point you forget what you’re reading is largely someone’s imagination.
The acrimony of the Israeli people at this time, however, is not a figment of Roth’s imagination. There are moments of high tension with military police, as well as a legal hearing involving a Ukrainian man who is being tried for nazi camp war crimes. Even if you don’t fully understand everything going on, you’re still going to have an interesting time reading this book. You need only to sit back and enjoy this ride: the manic, brilliant musings of an artist at the top of his game.
