Roth's "Confession"
In March 1993, he maintained the veracity of his novel to The New York Times' Esther B. Fein: "'Operation Shylock,' Roth insists with a post-modern straight face, is a 'confession,' not a novel, and he means for us to take this every bit as seriously as the contents labels demanded by the strictures of the Food and Drug Administration. 'The book is true,' Roth said the other day. 'As you know, at the end of the book a Mossad operative made me realize it was in my interest to say this book was fiction. And I became quite convinced that it was in my interest to do that. So I added the note to the reader as I was asked to do. I'm just a good Mossadnik.'"
Read more about this topic: Operation Shylock
Famous quotes containing the words roth and/or confession:
“Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)
“Till by and came Our Blessed Lady,
Her dear young son her wi.
“Will ye gang to your men again?
Or will ye gang wi me?
Will ye gang to the high heavens,
Wi my dear son and me?””
—Unknown. Brown Robyn’s Confession (l. 23–28)