Remembering Philip Roth, author of ‘dirty bestseller’ novel ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’

Philip Roth, the prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, from the comic madness of Portnoy’s Complaint to the elegiac lyricism of American Pastoral, died on May 22, aged 85.

Author of more than 25 books, Roth was a fierce satirist and uncompromising realist, confronting readers in a bold, direct style that scorned false sentiment or hopes for heavenly reward. He was an atheist who swore allegiance to earthly imagination, whether devising pornographic functions for raw liver or indulging romantic fantasies about Anne Frank. He never promised to be his readers’ friend; writing was its own reward, the narration of “life, in all its shameless impurity”.