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| Philip Roth dies in New York City on Tuesday at the age of 85. He was the author of 31 novels. Photo by Christo Drummkopf/Flickr |
By Ray Downs, UPI
Phillip Roth, one of the most heralded American novelists of the 20th century, died Tuesday at the age of 85.
Roth's friend, Judith Thurman, told CNN that Roth died of congestive heart failure and was surrounded by close friends and family.
"I'm in a state of shock. I'm stunned and speechless. He was a truth teller," Thurman said.
Roth, whose 31 novels over a 50-year span include Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral, was known writings about male identity, Jewish identity and sexuality with a sometimes darkly humorous twist.
"Updike and Bellow hold their flashlights out into the world, reveal the world as it is now," Roth once said, according to The New York Times. "I dig a hole and shine my flashlight into the hole."
Roth's body of work won him plenty of accolades.
In addition to a Pulitzer Prize and a Man Booker International Prize, Roth won two National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle awards and three PEN/Faulkner Awards.
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