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'He knew just what he had accomplished': Charles McGrath remembers celebrated American novelist Philip Roth

Philip Roth, a prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, has died. Writer Charles McGrath talks about his influence on the literary world.
Philip Roth, a prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, has died. Writer Charles McGrath talks about his influence on the literary world. (CBC)

Philip Roth, a prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, has died at the age of 85. He was best known for his novels American Pastoral and Portnoy's Complaint, but he wrote more than 25 books.

Today, Charles McGrath, the former editor of the The New York Times Book Review and a contributing writer for The New York Times joins us live from Allendale, N.J. to talk about Philip Roth's influence on the literary world. McGrath wrote the obituary for Roth in the New York Times and he conducted the Times' final interview with the author in January this year.

Produced by Chris Trowbridge