Nathan Zuckerman is a fictional character who has appeared as the narrator or protagonist of (and often functions as an alter ego in) many of Philip Roth's dozen or so works of fiction published since the late 1970s. Alter Ego has multiple meanings: Alter Ego is a game for the Commodore 64 computer. ... Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (born March 19, 1933, Newark, New Jersey) is an American novelist. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

Zuckerman makes his first appearance in the novel My Life As a Man, where he is the product of another fictional Roth creation, the writer Peter Tarnopol (making Zuckerman, in his original form, an alter-alter-ego). In later books Zuckerman is given a less indentured form of existence, starting with the 1979 novel The Ghost Writer, where he is the story's writer-apprentice protagonist, on a pilgrimage to cull the wisdom of the reclusive author E. I. Lonoff (a stand-in for Bernard Malamud). In Zuckerman Unbound (1981) Nathan is an established novelist and must deal with the fall-out from his ribald comedic novel Carnovsky. Though wildly successful (both critically and financially), the novel has brought to Zuckerman unwanted attention both from readers (who refuse to believe that the satyr-like exploits of his creation, Gilbert Carnovsky, were born of imagination, rather than experience) and his family, who feel betrayed by the way he has mined their secrets in the service of his own career. My Life as a Man (1974) is American writer Philip Roths seventh novel. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... The Ghost Writer (1979, ISBN 0679748989) is a novel by Philip Roth. ... Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American writer. ... Image from a Greek chalice depicting a satyr with a tail and erect penis, Euphronios, 510–500 BC, Athens In Greek mythology, satyrs (in Greek, Σάτυροι — Sátyroi) are young humans, possibly with horse ears, that roamed the woods and mountains, and were the companions of Pan and Dionysus. ...

The obvious parallels to Roth's own life as a novelist (with the novel Carnovsky a stand-in for Portnoy's Complaint) signaled Roth's burgeoning interest in the relationship between an author and his work. Such meta-fictional concerns would be mined more deeply in Roth's series of 1980s novels, most radically in The Counterlife and Operation Shylock. By the mid-1990s, though, Roth would tamp down on the self-referentiality, and reintroduce Zuckerman as witness and narrator in a trilogy of historical novels: American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000). Zuckerman also makes an appearance in Salman Rushdie's 1999 novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet, where in an alternate universe it is the literary alter-egos (and their novels!) that are real. Portnoys Complaint book cover Portnoys Complaint (1969) is American writer Philip Roths fourth and, to date, still most popular novel, with many of its characteristics (ribald, comedic prose; themes of sexual desire and sexual frustration; a self-conscious literariness) having gone on to become Roth trademarks. ... Metafiction is a kind of fiction which self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. ... Operation Shylock cover Operation Shylock is novelist Philip Roths 19th book and was published in 1993. ... American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel concerning Seymour Swede Levov, an all-around good guy whose life is ruined by the indigenous American berzerk. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and was included in All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels. ... I Married a Communist (ISBN 0375707212) is a Philip Roth novel concerning the rise and fall of Ira Ringold, known as Iron Rinn. ... The Human Stain (2000) is a novel by Philip Roth, who was born in New Jersey in 1933. ... Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie, Urdu: ‎, on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is a British-Indian essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ... The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a novel written by Salman Rushdie. ...

Philip Roth's next novel, called Exit Ghost, will be the ninth and last in the Zuckerman series. The book, expected to be released in October 2007, focuses on Zuckerman as an older man, returning to New York City after an extended period of living reclusion in the Berkshires.

External resources

• Salon.com: Philip Roth: The Zuckerman books