---
product_id: 17574265
title: "Operation Shylock : A Confession (Vintage International)"
brand: "philip roth"
price: "€ 38.18"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.de/products/17574265-operation-shylock-a-confession-vintage-international
store_origin: DE
region: Germany
---

# Operation Shylock : A Confession (Vintage International)

**Brand:** philip roth
**Price:** € 38.18
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Operation Shylock : A Confession (Vintage International) by philip roth
- **How much does it cost?** € 38.18 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.de](https://www.desertcart.de/products/17574265-operation-shylock-a-confession-vintage-international)

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## Description

Operation Shylock : A Confession (Vintage International)

## Images

![Operation Shylock : A Confession (Vintage International) - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51w-lz1opLL.jpg)
![Operation Shylock : A Confession (Vintage International) - Image 2](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31JOorJbXyL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A thoughtful, but tedious book
  

*by G***A on Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2019*

This book raises lots of interesting and important questions about the Zionist dream, the place of Israel in the middle east, the place of Jews in Europe, the holocaust, etc.  But the envelope story of the doppelganger is tedious and goes on for too long and in too much detail.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Double, Double Toil and Trouble
  

*by E***R on Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2009*

In OPERATION SHYLOCK, the character Philip Roth travels to Israel, where he plans to interview Aharon Applefeld, a gentle writer whose subject is the disappearance of the Jews from Europe and the effect of the Holocaust on survivors. This literary activity is a form of therapy for the character Roth who is not completely recovered from a battle with Halcion, a medication that gave him suicidal thoughts and a sense of mental disintegration. On the verge of this trip, Roth also learns of an impostor Philip Roth in Israel. This impostor espouses a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict--so-called Diasporism--which is the migration of Ashkenazi Jews back to Europe, where they will live without threat of extermination by the Arabs. Concurrent with Roth's trip is the public trial of Ivan the Terrible, a brutal Ukrainian and Nazi guard who drove the Jews into the gas chambers at Treblinka.Interestingly, Roth explores these parallel story lines-- the near destruction of Philip Roth and his fight for identity; and the near destruction of the Jews and their fight for survival in Israel--through the presentment and analysis of myriad doubles. For example, there is Roth, the emotionally delicate writer who identifies troubling moral issues but not their answers. And, there is Roth the impostor, who boldly seeks the limelight for his wacky ideas. Further, there is Applefeld, a writer who creates art as he explores his terrible childhood in the Holocaust. And, there is Apter, Roth's stunted fearful child-like cousin who never overcame the effects of the war. Then, there is George Ziad, a hysterically angry Palestinian who tries to shape Roth's perspective on Israel. And there is Smilesburger, an agent for the Mossad who seeks to persuade through his knowledge of Chofetz Chaim, a Polish rabbi who was insightful but critical of the Jews. Since OPERATION SHYLOCK is fiction, it's important to state that all the characters forming these and Roth's many other doubles are credible and interesting. At the same time, their diametrical natures open huge issues for Roth to explore, with his characters taking the reader to both sides. It's great work.Even so, OPERATION SHYLOCK does occasionally feature an element of Roth's writing that can stall his narrative. Defining this quality is Roth, himself, who in the final chapter of SHYLOCK writes: "...instead of being fortified by your victory over him, you self-destructively build into the letter egregious ambiguities that you then exploit to undermine the very equanimity you are out to achieve." Roth, in other words, sometimes seems attracted to a line of writing and reasoning because he is compulsively contrary. But since this is a book of doubles, Roth gives the opposite analysis a few pages later. "To do so ran counter to all the inclinations of one whose independence as a writer, whose counter suggestiveness as a writer, was simply second nature and had contributed as much to his limitations and his miscalculations as to his durability." Certainly, this helps to explain the richness of Roth's amazing oeuvre.To further validate this contrariness, I point out that OPERATION SHYLOCK refers, in this novel, to an undercover mission that the character Roth undertakes for the Israeli government, describes in a long chapter for this novel, and then expunges at the urging of Smilesburger, the Mossad agent. And this missing chapter is the contrary double of the novel OPERATION SHYLOCK, where Roth explores all his themes at length and in frank and revealing detail.Fascinating and highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Roth classic
  

*by B***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2015*

I have ALL fiction books by Roth, but I have only read 6. I had high expectations for this one, and although it did not disappoint, my expectations were I guess too high. This is something I of course knew already, because when you are expecting too much of something, usually things don't go as expected.Anyway, as for the book, I loved the approach to Zionism that Roth brings to the table, and I also loved the idea of the double Roth character.

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*Product available on Desertcart Germany*
*Store origin: DE*
*Last updated: 2026-03-04*