Philip Roth is the master of the uncomfortable, and his alter ego a connoisseur of self-involvement, self-loathing, and self-examination. In The Ghost Writer, Roth examines the tensions between literature and life, artistic truthfulness and conventional decency. At 23, Nathan Zuckerman has already hurt his family with his autobiographical art and ruined his relationship with adultery and dishonesty. Visiting his reclusive idol (famed for his "blend of sympathy and pitilessness") in the Berkshires, the writer watches himself watching himself and attempts to confront his work and life. Events, however, have their revenge, weaving more out of control than even he can anticipate or ask for.