I Married a Communist

By Philip Roth

Categories: Literature & Fiction

Nathan Zuckerman narrates Philip Roth's 1998 novel, hearing from his old high-school English teacher, Murray Ringold, the story of Murray's brother, Ira. Ira, a self-taught radio star and committed communist, is ruined during the McCarthy era after his wife, the actress Eve Frame, publishes a book exposing him. The novel is about betrayal, politics and the anticommunist fervor of postwar America.

Recommended by 1 person

• Barack Obama: “Some of the great books by Jewish authors like Philip Roth or Saul Bellow, they are steeped with this sense of being an outsider, longing to get in, not sure what you're giving up — what you're willing to give up and what you're not willing to give up.”