Repellent

Blake Bailey turns the lens on himself in this account of his work on Philip Roth: The Biography and of what followed its publication. Set against the backdrop of cancel culture, the book traces how the project began in 2012, when Roth, a famously private writer, granted Bailey full and exclusive access to his friends, family, papers, and life. Over the six years that followed, the relationship between the two men swung between warmth and friction, and it ended only with Roth's death in 2018.

The biography appeared on April 6, 2021, and runs to 900 pages. Its revelations led some readers to call for Roth and his work to be canceled, while others felt Bailey had been too sympathetic to his subject and had gone along with his worst behavior. Rumors about Bailey's own private life soon spread online, and within days he was canceled as well.

Bailey revisits his difficult collaboration with Roth, a novelist often counted among the greatest writers of the postwar period, but also widely known for a reputation as a misogynist, a philanderer, and a self-hating Jew. That reputation left Roth preoccupied with his one authorized biography. Bailey is equally candid about his own misconduct and considers how far a creator's personal life should shape the way readers judge the work.

The book offers a personal portrait of Roth and his biographer, along with a close look at the hazards any artist faces in an era of cancel culture, when fallible human beings are judged by their worst moments.