I Married a Communist

Book 2: American Trilogy

by Philip Roth

Genres: Literary Fiction

Synopsis

Iron Ron (born Ira Ringold): New Jersey roughneck, radio actor, idealistic Communist, and educated ditchdigger turned popular performer. A six-foot, six-inch Abe Lincoln look-alike, he emerges from serving in World War II passionately committed to making the world a better place and instead winds up blacklisted, unemployable, and blighted by a brutal personal secret from which he is perpetually in flight.

On his way to political catastrophe, Iron Ron marries the nation's reigning radio actress and beloved silent film star, Eve Frame (born Chava Fromkin). Their marriage evolves from glamorous, romantic idyll to a dispiriting soap opera of tears and treachery. Eve's dramatic revelation to a gossip columnist of her husband's life of “espionage” for the Soviet Union soon spirals their relationship from private drama into national scandal.

I Married a Communist is an American tragedy, as only Philip Roth can conceive—fierce and funny, deadly accurate, and eloquently rendered by actor Ron Silver.

Release date: October 22, 1998

Publisher: Mariner Books

Print pages: 341