Zuckerman Unbound

Infobox Book |
name = Zuckerman Unbound
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author = Philip Roth
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country = United States
language = English
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genre = Novel
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release_date = 1981
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media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
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preceded_by = The Ghost Writer
followed_by = The Anatomy Lesson

"Zuckerman Unbound" is a 1981 novel by the American author Philip Roth. Like much of Roth's fiction, this book confronts the tenuous relationship between an author and his artistic creations. It resumes the story of Roth's fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman that was inaugurated in Roth's previous novel "The Ghost Writer".

Plot summary

The novel parallels several real events in Roth's life, including the publication of his 1969 novel "Portnoy's Complaint" and the hoopla which surrounded Roth in the wake of that novel's fame. By analogy, in "Zuckerman Unbound", Zuckerman has achieved meteoric acclaim and notoriety with "Carnovsky", a coming-of-age sex romp that differs remarkably from Zuckerman's previously Jamesian fiction. The extent to which the details of the Zuckerman character can be safely compared to those of Roth has been a subject of zealous debate among Roth's readers. Roth himself has weighed in on the debate, both in interviews and within his fiction.