A Faint Obsession

Did Francine du Plessix really deserve Philip Roth’s hatred? He accused her, amongst other things, of having sent an anonymous letter that cost him the Nobel Prize. Did she really? And why could neither of them let it go? Why couldn’t du Plessix just accept that he didn’t like her and never would? And why did Roth pursue her with such hostility right up to the end?

Esther returns to America for the publication of her new book, and is reunited after many years with mutual friends of Francine du Plessix and Philip Roth. Esther hasn’t seen them since 1991, when she was an au pair for writer Francine, who was neighbours in Connecticut with Roth. In the thirty years since she was last there, Esther has remained slightly obsessed by these two titans of American letters—reading their correspondence, archives, unpublished texts, and talking to those closest to them—seeking to unlock the secrets of their tortuous friendship through times of desire to rejection, love to humiliation.

The fictional autopsy of the true, highly ambiguous rapport between Philip Roth and Francine du Plessix, who died just six months apart, A Slight Obsession is a tender, irony-tinted exploration of the ferocious battle between two literary luminaries. Colombe Schneck’s story is nourished by real, not-yet-published archives, delivering a surprising, fresh portrait of this complex relationship—a novel where truth and fiction brilliantly interweave.