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| U.S. Writer Philip Roth Awarded France's Highest Honor |
| 2013-09-30 |
| [An Nahar] France has awarded the U.S. writer Philip Roth its highest decoration, the Legion d'honneur (Legion of Honor), with the country's foreign minister bestowing the award in New York. I had to stop and think about who he is. He's the guy that wrote about having sex with a couple pounds of liver. At a ceremony on Friday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in the Big Apple for the United Nations General Assembly, praised Roth's prolific career as one of the leading men of American letters. He ain't no Mark Twain. O.Henry woulda turned up his nose at him. And James Fennimore Cooper would have beat him up. The distinction, first established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to give recognition to civilians and soldiers, has five degrees and Roth, 80, was given the title of Commander. Under what circumstances do you wear it, or is it like costume jewelry? A conversation piece for one of those dull parties in el chateau. The Legion of Honor goes well with a black tie, but leave it in your room when on the links or in the clubhouse? And a tennis match is right out. "This highest honor is a wonderful surprise," Roth said. Then, speaking in French, he said that he was "absolutely delighted." Fabius, describing Roth's "huge success" in France, added: "France is giving you back what you have given to my country." Uh, Phil? A moment of your time? Jerry Lewis had Big Success in France. Thought you might want to know. You are replacing Jerry Lewis. Roth achieved fame with his sexually explicit novel "Portnoy's Complaint" in 1969, and is well known for mining the Jewish-American experience as source material for his work. He is the author of nearly 30 novels, including "The Humbling" (2009) about an aging actor and erotic desire, and "Nemesis," framed on a 1944 polio epidemic, which was published came in 2010. Now he just smokes cigarettes and gives standup routines like Lewis. He also wrote The Plot Against America, which was the obligatory takeover of the country by evil right-wingers. Critics swooned. Roth's numerous U.S. literary prizes include two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, three PEN/Faulkner awards, and the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for "American Pastoral." Roth, who told French magazine in 2012 that he would no longer write fiction, said that he learned French when he was a teenager but has since forgotten most of it. |
| Posted by:Fred |