Operation Shylock by Philip Roth

Written in 1993, it is uncanny how relatable this book is to the current events in Israel.

Whether this is a work of fact or fiction or Roth just being his very clever self is anyone’s guess. The fictionalized Philip Roth travels to Israel to interview another writer and attends the trial of accused war criminal John Demjanjuk. While there, he discovers that another man, Moishe Pipik is presenting himself as Philip Roth the author and advocating for the return of Isrealis back to the European countries they emigrated from.

Philip Roth as Philip Roth could still be feeling the hallucinogenic effects of the Halcion he was prescribed following surgery.

Moishe Pipik, Roth’s doppleganger is sick with cancer and obsessed with resolving the conflicts in Israel. Using his physical likeness to Roth, he believes his ideas will be taken more seriously when presenting himself as Roth.

John Demjanjuk, aka Ivan the Terrible is accused of Nazi war crimes and had been living in Ohio for years living as an ordinary American citizen. Will memories from nearly four decades ago be trusted?

Moishe’s girlfriend, Wanda Jane “Jinx” Possesski is another quirky character. A nurse who burned out working in Oncology fell for Moishe and supports his campaign including attending his prescribed Anti-Semites Anonymous group.

Quotes:

This is the public relations campaign cunningly devised by the terrorist Begin: to establish Israeli military expansionism as historically just by joining it to the memory of Jewish victimization; to rationalize–as historical justice, as just retribution, as nothing more than self-defense–the gobbling up of the Occupied Territories and the driving of the Palestinians off their land once again.

This is a state founded on force and maintained by force, a Machiavellaisn state that deals violently with the uprising of an oppressed people in an occupied territory, a Machiavellain state in, admittedly, a Machiavellian world, but about as saintly as the Chicago Police Department.

What we have done to the Palestinians is wicked. We have displaced them and we have oppressed them. We have expelled them, beaten them, tortured them, and murdered them. The Jewish state, from the day of its inception, has been dedicated to elminating a Palestinian presence in historial Palestine and expropriating the land of an indigenous people.

I’ve always been in awe of Mr. Roth and this book just reinforced those feelings. While we certainly would not meet in Israel, NYC would be a more appropriate meeting place. Yes, yes naysayers, I am well aware of his death in 2018.

My rating for Operation Shylock is a 9 out of 10.

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Next up…Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy…

Source: https://vsudia.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/operation-shylock-by-philip-roth/