I MARRIED A COMMUNIST by Philip Roth

This novel takes place during the McCarthy era, and Ira Ringold is a communist.  He is also a radio star married to an even bigger star.  His marriage is hampered by his wife’s adult daughter who rules the roost.  Still, he hangs in there, partly because he fears that if he bails out of the marriage he will be blacklisted.  His older brother Murray is a high school teacher, and his student, Nathan Zuckerman, is the narrator.  Nathan becomes sort of a protégé to both men, and he becomes caught up in Ira’s vision for the common man.  This is really Ira’s story, though, and his personal situation with all the trappings of fame contrasts sharply with his political leanings.  Nathan, on the other hand, has to choose between Ira’s influence and that of a college professor who admonishes Nathan for mixing politics with art in his writing.  The issue that struck me the most was Ira’s complaint that communists in this country were being persecuted for what they thought, while no one was being punished for the lynchings taking place in the South.  I found this book to be highly applicable to today’s political divide, and Roth’s prose is always superb.  At one point he describes a dilapidated punching bag with supreme eloquence and humor.  That paragraph alone makes this book worth reading, and it has nothing to do with communism or politics.  All in all, I liked this book better than American Pastoral.