Rating: 
Summary: Guile, angst, and no reprieve.
Review: A masterpiece. Roth weaves a spellbinding thriller ridden with sardonic wit and the ironic guile of middle-aged man caught in the whirlpool of an identity crisis. Everything that Roth has believed in and explored in previous novels is brought to the test -- i.e. sexuality, politics, heritage. No sentimentality. Brutal observation of self. The man puts himself under a microscope. Lets the reader peek through the eyehole. Roth fragments himself because he is a fragmented man. Doesn't shy away from the shards. Only pokes himself with the razor points and lets himself bleed. Having spent Thanksgiving with Roth post the publication of Shylock, I can only testify that Roth is a study of opposites: cruel and generous, callous and tender, cynical and yet a "believer". In retrospect, this book should've garnered the Pulitzer. And Updike should've been shot
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps a great book, but not a great tape
Review: After hearing Opeartion Shylock on tape, the way I do most of my reading, I was puzzled about the notion of fact vs. fiction. The last words of the epilogue seem to annul the notion of confession. That is reminiscent, I'm sure to many Jews, of the words of Kol Nidre. We know that the Inquisition happened. We know the holocoust happened. But did this series of events happen or was it all made up? Now looking at the paperback I am sorting things out. The very, very long monolouges don't work well on tape. But my sense they are much better in the book form. It was a very good book, I THINK! And chapter 11 is the greatest mystery of all. I would love to hear from others.
Rating: 
Summary: An Endless Classic
Review: Amazing.... Philip Roth has pulled off the unthinkable. He writes a book with no ending and he gets away with it. He not only gets away with it, he does it with style. Boring at times, brilliant at others, this book works to a nerve racking frenzy, and then Roth cuts us loose. It's almost as if he gets writer's block right before the last chapter! But that remains the beauty of this work. The use of "fact or fiction ?" is what guides us through to the end only to take a twist that will send you silly. Highly effective.....that is if you can get through the lecture-like portions. If only this book was trimmed by about 75 pages or so. It's dragging portions is what drags my rating down to three stars
Rating:
Summary: An Endless Classic
Review: Another good effort from Roth, but not his best by any means. The narrative technique is, like many of Roth's novels, clever and well executed. However, it also closely resembles a few of his other novels and leaves one appreciating his skill rather than simply enjoying the work. I can't recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to read a great deal about Zionism and Diasporism. It's a didactic, rather than a novelistic, book.
Rating:
Summary: Good, Not Great
Review: Another good effort from Roth, but not his best by any means. The narrative technique is, like many of Roth's novels, clever and well executed. However, it also closely resembles a few of his other novels and leaves one appreciating his skill rather than simply enjoying the work. I can't recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to read a great deal about Zionism and Diasporism. It's a didactic, rather than a novelistic, book.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring. The plot plods along.
Review: Boring, slow moving plot. Too much discussion of the Jewish Diaspora, Zionism, and Demjanjuk. I couldn't finish this book fast enough.Read "Goodbye, Columbus" or "Portnoy's Complaint" instead. Both are funnier and flow better than "Shylock".
Rating:
Summary: For patient readers, the payoff is profound
Review: Exploring every conceivable aspect of identity -- of the self, and of the state of Israel -- this novel is a tour de force. I couldn't find Roth's "The Human Stain" after hearing an NPR review, so I picked up "Operation Shylock" instead; it's my first reading of Roth. I'd agree with others' descriptions of some slow or complex passages, but over time I came to view these as almost purposely placed: Roth toying with his own medium as he dances across the fiction/non-fiction line. Comparing this novel with other recent semi-autobiographical works -- like Paul Theroux's "My Other Life" -- I found "Operation Shylock" stayed with me longer and addressed deeper themes. Possibly not the best _introduction_ to Roth, "Operation Shylock" is still extremely funny and extremely intelligent, with an ending that sent me reeling.
Rating:
Summary: For patient readers, the payoff is profound
Review: Exploring every conceivable aspect of identity -- of the self, and of the state of Israel -- this novel is a tour de force. I couldn't find Roth's "The Human Stain" after hearing an NPR review, so I picked up "Operation Shylock" instead; it's my first reading of Roth. I'd agree with others' descriptions of some slow or complex passages, but over time I came to view these as almost purposely placed: Roth toying with his own medium as he dances across the fiction/non-fiction line. Comparing this novel with other recent semi-autobiographical works -- like Paul Theroux's "My Other Life" -- I found "Operation Shylock" stayed with me longer and addressed deeper themes. Possibly not the best _introduction_ to Roth, "Operation Shylock" is still extremely funny and extremely intelligent, with an ending that sent me reeling.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Years later
Review: Five years have passed since I first read OS and time has only improved the irony. Pollard's still in Jail, Oslo is floundering and Rabin is dead. What's so funny about leaving Israel to the Palestinians.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing, Brilliant, Complex, Riveting, Shivery
Review: I loved this book! Perhaps, I award it five stars because I "read" the audio version. I imagine it could be a tedious read. However, I listened to Operation Shylock while commuting to work--I shivered at its brilliance, gasped aloud each time I reached my destination and had to turn it off. As one whose profession it is to sort through the psychological complexities of neurosis, psychosis, the shifting perceptions and altered realities of the mentally ill, I found the minds of the twin Philip Roth's as facinating as any patient I've ever had the honor to follow into the dark abyss of self-doubt, creativity, confusion, and triumph. This is one of those rare books I will read again.
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