Convictions are greater enemies of truth than lies.
- Nietzsche
I have had the pleasure of reading two works by Philip Roth, both very different in tone and demonstrating a wide range of his abilities as a writer. Portnoy's Complaint turned out to be one of the funniest, most neurotic novels I've read and was the hook that convinced me that more Roth would make worthwhile reading. My second foray, When She Was Good, the subject of this post, has similarities in that it is a character study but there it ends. It is a much darker, more somber novel and it is about a character that I felt little sympathy for by the end of the reading. However, the set up of the novel where the reader is told the central character is dead was the element that made me want to continue as I had to know why and how.
