Tributes as US ‘greatest writer’ Roth dies at 85
TRIBUTES have been paid to American literary giant Philip Roth after his death at 85.
The celebrated author wrote more than 25 books – including Portnoy’s Complaint and American Pastoral – often with themes involving sex, mortality and religion.
The Pulitzer Prize winner, who was famed for his racy and often hilarious writing style, died in a New York hospital of congestive heart failure.
His biographer Blake Bailey said he died surrounded by “lifelong friends who loved him dearly”, adding that he was “a darling man and our greatest living writer”.
The death came eight days after fellow US writing legend Tom Wolfe, famed for The Bonfire Of The Vanities and The Right Stuff, also died in New York at 88.
Roth was born into a Jewish neighbourhood in New Jersey in 1933 and this background influenced his prose.
In 2011 he was presented with the National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama at the White House.
The Wire writer David Simon and Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn were among those who led the tributes last night.
Simon wrote on Twitter: “Kaddish for Philip Roth, the great American novelist of our post-war world.”
He added: “At 85, he was more precise and insightful, more intellectually adept and downright witty than any person of any age.”
Gunn shared a photo on Twitter of the cover of Roth’s book The Counterlife, writing: “RIP Philip Roth. This one hurts me and all of literature.”
Screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer, who wrote Mrs Doubtfire, tweeted: “Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe both gone in the same eight days.
“One thing is certain: Smart is dying, Stupid is rapidly expanding.”