Travels with Kafka

Abstract

Abstract Roth travels to Prague and encounters the dissident writers of Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe. He begins his “Writers from the Other Europe” series (1974–89) and creates new contacts with authors like Ivan Klíma, Milan Kundera, and Danilo Kiš. He provides for these disenfranchised writers by establishing a bank account with support from Updike, Styron, and Cheever. Soon the impact of Eastern Europe appears in early drafts of American Pastoral started in 1972, immediately after his first trip to Prague. The impact of of his exposure to Eastern European writers appears in works like “Looking at Kafka,” The Prague Orgy, and The Professor of Desire. He writes a 1973 “Country Report” on Czechoslovakia for PEN, the international organization supporting freedom for writers. And in New York in 1975, he accidentally meets Claire Bloom and begins a lengthy relationship. Discussion follows of Roth’s savior complex and how his male characters respond to passive, vulnerable women.