I Married a Communist

"I Married a Communist" is the vengeful roman-a-clef response to Clair Bloom's reportedly harse memoir of her marriage to the author, Philip Roth. The story is of a man blacklisted during the McCarthy era as the result of both his politics and the betrayal of his shallow, selfish actress wife. A wife whose adult, musician daughter (by a previous marriage) dominates her life to the exclusion of her husband, a wife who fears a physical relationship with her husband to the point of aborting their unborn baby, a wife who exposes her husband as a communist to save her daughter's career. Based on my web research, all these elements seem to parallel events related to the Roth-Bloom marriage and its aftermath. The theme of betrayal and revenge is driven powerfully by Roth's personal experience.
This is unfortunate because Mr Roth has such wonderful talent and the machinations of the McCarthy era, its effects on people and its legacy is a story worth telling. Perhaps this could be that story, but I found it impossible to separate the historically truth from what was molded to fit Roth's underlying purpose.
Within this thematic framework, Mr. Roth has portrayed himself as two characters: the brothers Ira and Murray Ringold. Ira -- a working class radio actor -- embodies emotion, impulsiveness, anger and love. While Murray -- an English teacher -- embodies reason, intellect and rationality. Combine those traits (drama, emotion, good grammer, reason) and you'll get a writer.
In this respect the novel is a confessional: Ira's emotional outbursts portray Roth's shame over his own passions. Murray, looking back, understands and explains where things went wrong, how pain could have been avoided and lessons we all (he's a teacher, after all) should learn.
I listened to the unabridged audiobook version of "I Married a Communist". Ron Silver did a very nice job differentiating the characters through inflection, accents and similar narrative techniques. Surprisingly the publisher did not edit or re-take a few fumbles during recording which I found distracting. I suppose there's irony to an audio performance about a radio actor who falls from grace. Mr. Silver: If have any minerals to sell, just let me know.