Zuckerman’s "Blah-blah Blah-blah Blah": a blow to mimesis, a key to irony

Philip Roth’s American trilogy is indeed a poignant description of seminal periods of contemporary America. Reading these three outstanding novels, one feels entitled to use the fictional data included to improve or modify one’s knowledge of crucial events such as the Vietnam War, McCarthyism or Clinton's peculiar second term. And this is roughly how this work has been depicted in most reviews, as a powerful "mimetic feast." Today, Roth's talent seems to lie mainly in his ability to create a ...