| The fictional (or not so fictional, some say) character of novelist Philip Roth takes what the author claims is his last bow in his newest book, "Exit Ghost." In the book, the character of Nathan Zuckerman, a writer like Roth, confronts his own advancing age (he's in his 70s, like Roth, of course) and diminishing strength. But, as CNN points out, the "last" book featuring Zuckerman has been the "last" book before.
"I KNOW so," he told the newstation. "I mean this to be conclusive, because that was my intention, and, as far as I know, my intentions are honorable."
Roth said he'd exhausted the possibilities of Zuckerman back in 1983, but then wrote several more books featuring the fellow author of New Jersey, whom he dreamed up while visiting Eastern Europe in the '70s.
"When you're writing, you're throwing it all in your dream machine," CNN quotes the Pulitzer Prize-winning author as saying, "And you're throwing whatever is handy and what is useful to you. And by the time when I'm finished writing the book, I don't know whether something is drawn from life or not. It's been remade."
"Exit Ghost," released officially on Monday and doing well on Amazon.com, is published byHoughton Mifflin, 304 pages. You can catch excerpts and a podcast with the author at its Amazon page, and read more of CNN's story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/10/02/books.philip.roth.ap/index.html
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