Blake Bailey Livres

Philip Roth requested his biographer, Blake Bailey, to make him interesting rather than rehabilitate him. With full access to Roth's personal archive, Bailey dedicated nearly a decade to studying Roth's life through extensive interviews with friends, lovers, and colleagues, alongside Roth's own candid confessions. Cynthia Ozick praised Bailey's biography in the New York Times Book Review, calling it a narrative masterwork that reveals the intricate drive behind what initially appears to be casual chance. Despite Roth's reputation as an autobiographical novelist, much about his actual life remains unknown. Bailey uncovers a man who led a compartmentalized existence: a passionate advocate for dissident writers while also embodying the roguish character of Mickey Sabbath, engaging in scandalous affairs and seeking to provoke others. Roth's tumultuous relationship with his second wife, Claire Bloom, adds another layer to his complex persona. Ultimately, Roth's literary legacy includes thirty-one books that, as poet Mark Strand noted, provide profound insights into contemporary life. Bailey examines Roth's evolution from realism to farce, metafiction, and the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, highlighting his deep engagement with postwar American culture.

John Cheever spent much of his career impersonating a perfect suburban gentleman, the better to become one of the foremost chroniclers of postwar America. Written with unprecedented access to essential sources—including Cheever’s massive journal, only a fraction of which has ever been published—Bailey’s Cheever is a stunning example of the biographer’s art and a brilliant tribute to an essential author.

The renowned biographer's definitive portrait of a literary titan.

Meet the Baileys: Burck, a prosperous lawyer once voted the American Legion's "Citizen of the Year" in his tiny hometown of Vinita, Oklahoma; his wife Marlies, who longs to recapture her festive life in Greenwich Village as a fetching young German immigrant, fresh off the boat; their addled son Scott, who repeatedly crashes the family Porsche; and Blake, the younger son, trying to find a way through the storm. "You're gonna be just like me," a drunken Scott taunts him. "You're gonna be worse." Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Blake Bailey has been hailed as "addictively readable" (New York Times) and praised for his ability to capture lives "compellingly and in harrowing detail" (Time). The Splendid Things We Planned is his darkly funny account of growing up in the shadow of an erratic and increasingly dangerous brother, an exhilarating and sometimes harrowing story that culminates in one unforgettable Christmas.