One of the well known novels of Philip Roth — a controversial novelist of America who won the Man Booker International Prize for his most recent novel Nemesis (2010) — I Married A Communist is a part of his trilogy of the late 1990s. The other two are the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral and The Human Stain .
This novel tracks the ups and downs of Era Rimgold, who is famous as ‘Iron Rin'. Era, who starts off as a ribald character, comes into limelight suddenly when he, as a radio artist, criticises the government. He is married to Eve Frames, who was previously married to Calton Pennington, a Hollywood actor, and has a daughter from him. When Eve discloses, in her book, that her husband Era is one who follows the Russian suggestions blindly, all hell breaks loose, and the lives of Era and his relatives are ruined.
How the anti-Communist feelings spread in post-war America and influenced social and political life is portrayed effectively. As a work that reanimated the genre of fiction by the author's imagination, it is impressive and memorable. Chapter after chapter he recasts the prejudgments on human behaviour afresh with insight.
The translator and the publisher deserve commendation for having made this novel accessible to the Malayalam readers and, thereby, enabling them to familiarise themselves with the latest trends and developments in the world of fiction at the global level.
