Roth's short novel (his 30th) now comes in paperback. Simon Axler, once the leading stage actor of his generation, is now in his 60s and has lost his magic, talent and confidence. With his wife and audience gone, how can he make a comeback? 'There is a clarity, almost a ruthlessness to his work, which makes the experience of reading any of his books a bracing, wild ride... He is the great postwar chronicler of America... He is the last of the giants' Erica Wagner, "Times