Today’s Times Magazine has a long piece
about Philip Roth his biographers
his many lovers rich complicated imperfect life.
I had a date with Philip Roth once. I’m sure he
would never have remembered his unremarkable
drink with Esther Cohen but because Philip Roth
was my only famous date and not really
a date more an extended drink at Mitchell’s Place
elegant rooftop bar on the East Side and because
I have told my Sort of Date Philip Roth story
many times I thought today’s Sunday Times would
be a good excuse to tell it again.
My friend Jean sat next to him at a Literary Dinner Party.
She liked him and gave him my number. She liked him because
he was funny and Jean who knew Left Intellectuals
but not Popular Culture People (I told her about Jack Benny)
Jean didn’t know much about Philip Roth
except that he was a Good Writer and she knew
I wanted to be a Good Writer too and he said he was
in-between relationships although I am sure he was never
in between relationships and anyway I talked to Jean
early every morning for years because she had insomnia
and said she might as well call me because I was up too.
One morning she said I gave a writer named Philip your number.
You’ll like him. You’re not going to marry him said Jean,
who was very occasionally maternal. But I know you’ll
have a good time. He called that day and I saw
him the next, knowing perfectly well who Philip Roth
was and we sat in the bar for a while both
talked a lot mainly about relatives and when Jean
called the next morning to find out what happened
I said he was interesting and Jean said
interesting is not a good enough word and for
many years he and I would walk by one another on the
street and he would say hello as though I looked
vaguely familiar and I would think I’ll Tell
My Philip Roth story one day.
I love this1
Reading between the lines, does that mean you once had a date also with Jack Benny?