Philip Roth

my one famous date

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.