There isn't much of the stylistic flare here that we see in Roth's later books, but it's well-written and compulsive reading, as Lucy is such a compelling character, in spite of the reader learning early on what ultimately became of her. As the last reviewer noted, she is an unusually vibrant, real character, and if I detect a note of mysoginism from Roth in her, it's not too difficult to forgive.

This really is an unusual book; its flaws of predictability and melodrama are overshadowed by its strengths.


It is only once in a great while,   June 12, 1997
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even in the work of such a crafty writer as Philip Roth, that the "roundness" of a character (which we are taught to admire and comment on in our reviews) takes on an even higher dimension of reality in order to make its (her, in this case) presence felt. To put it another way: if Tricky of Roth's Our Gang is essentially flat--that is, 2-dimensional--then his Alexander Portnoy is very round (he undergoes change), and consequently more real.

In When She Was Good, we are introduced to that rare 4-dimensional character, and her name is Lucy Nelson. Besides going through changes, she absorbs momentum; a sort of manic kineticism acts on her while she acts on her immediate circle of friends and family. Because of this treatment, and some intriguing structural techniques that ought to remind the reader of Faulkner, the "same" Lucy who evokes deep sympathy eventually demands of us that we dismiss or even ridicule her, until this amazing last page...

To deal with a 4-dimensional character (Hamlet is another example of one) requires a touch of literary mysticism. We must treat the novel as a reality, a chunk of life, instead of a mere representation. Like the main characters of great films (e.g. Citizen Kane), Lucy Nelson bothers our categorization-impulse by putting her internal contradictions in high relief. And she does this without the mimetic advantages that a film possesses.

On the whole, When She Was Good is not Roth's best novel; we do not expect it to be, when we see the photo of Roth (apparently in his mid twenties) on the flap. But that youngster, who went on to stand at the peak of quality and the edge of style in American letters, delivered one of the most compelling ethical statements of our day: systems of moral duties must be constantly fine-tuned when we deal with living, breathing persons instead of hypotheses.

Roth has given us such a person in Lucy Nelson.

Matthew Wayne (scrumle@acad.udallas.edu)