The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography
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The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography (1997, ISBN 0-679-74905-5) is a book by Philip Roth that traces his life from his childhood in Newark, New Jersey to becoming a successful, widely respected novelist. The autobiographical section is bookended by two letters, one from Roth to his fictional alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman, the other from Zuckerman himself, telling Roth what he sees as problems with the book.
Roth interlaces the present with the past and remote past. The book is divided into six chapters:
- "Prologue" (About his father)
- "Safe at Home" (Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood)
- "Joe College" (College life, first love)
- "Girl of My Dreams" (Chicago years, the women who became his first wife)
- "All in the Family" (Defending himself against Jewish community attacks on his writing)
- "Now Vee May Perhaps to Begin" (His divorce and death of his first wife)
