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.
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.
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest novels I've read!
Review: In an interview published in the New Yorker about 5 years ago, film critic Pauline Kael said of Operation Shylock that it was « the funniest book since Naked Lunch ». Those striking words awoke my curiosity right away, and eventually, brought me to discover this truly hilarious and brilliant book - and then, over the years, other amazing works from one of the great living novelists.
Rating:
Summary: Philip Roth's work continues to impress
Review: My introduction to Philip Roth was Portnoy's Complaint. A wonderful book and a wonderful introduction. I am a huge fan of Roth. He is my favorite author. His early work is wonderful but over time he has worked in a more sophisticated manner and undertaken more complex issues. Reading Operation Shylock was proof of this. His use of language and the themes the book covered kept me reading late in the night on many occassions. This is not a book you can read easily or quickly. That, however, makes it worhtwile. Operation Shylock is a book you savour and contemplate long after finishing the last page.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated/Insipid/Boring
Review: Philip roth has been touted as a great writer.I must admit, i was curious and bought this book in an effort to validate what others say.However, i must say that OPERATION SHYLOCK is one hell of a boring bland slow-paced book. Sure, the occasional paragraphs on religion did interest me slightly but the story sucks and the prose did not possess one ounce of magnetism.Trust me, mail me the $ if you have to, but don't waste it here.
Rating: 
Summary: Two Philip Roths for the price of one book
Review: Philip Roth's novel "Operation Shylock" presents a two-sided controversial discussion about the justification of the existence of the state of Israel. The protagonist is Roth himself, who has just overcome a period of Halcion-induced depression and is preparing to fly to Israel on a journalistic assignment to interview a Holocaust-surviving author. Coinciding with this event is the trial of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian American citizen extradited to Israel, who is alleged to have been a sadistic SS guard branded Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka death camp during World War II.Just before making his trip, Roth hears that somebody in Israel is using his name to promote a new Diaspora, imploring the Ashkenazi Jews to return to Europe to reclaim their cultural heritage. Once in Israel, it's not long before he encounters his impersonator after attending a session of Demjanjuk's trial. The impersonator tells Roth that he is a private detective from Chicago and that he runs a counseling service to "cure" anti-Semites, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous in its purpose. Accompanying him in Israel is his girlfriend and a former anti-Semite, a confused American woman with a checkered past, who was his nurse when he was a cancer patient. Roth's impersonator sees himself as the influential equal and ideological opposite of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism. He advocates Diasporism because he fears that the state of Israel is perceived by the world as Jewish tyranny over Arabs and will lead to a second Holocaust. How the real Roth reacts to this premise develops the rest of the novel, which, as the title implies, shapes itself into a subtle spy story. Some interesting supporting characters are introduced to contribute to the debate and clever plot devices are employed for intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: For patient readers, the payoff is profound
Review: Philip Roth's novel "Operation Shylock" presents a two-sided controversial discussion about the justification of the existence of the state of Israel. The protagonist is Roth himself, who has just overcome a period of Halcion-induced depression and is preparing to fly to Israel on a journalistic assignment to interview a Holocaust-surviving author. Coinciding with this event is the trial of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian American citizen extradited to Israel, who is alleged to have been a sadistic SS guard branded Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka death camp during World War II. Just before making his trip, Roth hears that somebody in Israel is using his name to promote a new Diaspora, imploring the Ashkenazi Jews to return to Europe to reclaim their cultural heritage. Once in Israel, it's not long before he encounters his impersonator after attending a session of Demjanjuk's trial. The impersonator tells Roth that he is a private detective from Chicago and that he runs a counseling service to "cure" anti-Semites, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous in its purpose. Accompanying him in Israel is his girlfriend and a former anti-Semite, a confused American woman with a checkered past, who was his nurse when he was a cancer patient. Roth's impersonator sees himself as the influential equal and ideological opposite of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism. He advocates Diasporism because he fears that the state of Israel is perceived by the world as Jewish tyranny over Arabs and will lead to a second Holocaust. How the real Roth reacts to this premise develops the rest of the novel, which, as the title implies, shapes itself into a subtle spy story. Some interesting supporting characters are introduced to contribute to the debate and clever plot devices are employed for intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: Two Philip Roths for the price of one book
Review: Philip Roth's novel "Operation Shylock" presents a two-sided controversial discussion about the justification of the existence of the state of Israel. The protagonist is Roth himself, who has just overcome a period of Halcion-induced depression and is preparing to fly to Israel on a journalistic assignment to interview a Holocaust-surviving author. Coinciding with this event is the trial of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian American citizen extradited to Israel, who is alleged to have been a sadistic SS guard branded Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka death camp during World War II. Just before making his trip, Roth hears that somebody in Israel is using his name to promote a new Diaspora, imploring the Ashkenazi Jews to return to Europe to reclaim their cultural heritage. Once in Israel, it's not long before he encounters his impersonator after attending a session of Demjanjuk's trial. The impersonator tells Roth that he is a private detective from Chicago and that he runs a counseling service to "cure" anti-Semites, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous in its purpose. Accompanying him in Israel is his girlfriend and a former anti-Semite, a confused American woman with a checkered past, who was his nurse when he was a cancer patient. Roth's impersonator sees himself as the influential equal and ideological opposite of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism. He advocates Diasporism because he fears that the state of Israel is perceived by the world as Jewish tyranny over Arabs and will lead to a second Holocaust. How the real Roth reacts to this premise develops the rest of the novel, which, as the title implies, shapes itself into a subtle spy story. Some interesting supporting characters are introduced to contribute to the debate and clever plot devices are employed for intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: Ingenious!
Review: Roth is the undefeated (probably undefeatable) champion of literary experimentation, and Operation Shylock is perhaps his most successful, most outrageous experiment to date. The author-as-character, fact-as-fiction-as-fact motif has been done before, but rarely with such skill and never with such hilarious results. It's part international espionage, part political commentary, part cultural exposition, part farce, and all parody; Roth's egotistical, though often self-depracating voice keeps the story chugging powerfully along. Par usual, Roth's greatest zinger of all is saved for the last few pages. I would award Shylock five stars, if it were not for the fact that I simply can't (and never have been able to) get used to his hyperbolic style--all the ranting and raving and melodrama can occasionally be tiresome. But one doesn't normally read Roth for his elegant prose; one reads him for his ingenuity, his outrageousness, and his courage. And in this regard, Shylock certainly will not disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: Huh?
Review: This is an interesting book but not interesting enough for me to want to re-read it. The book is about an author who, after suffering severe depression caused by a sleep medication, becomes involved with the Mossad and his own double. By the end of the book, one is wondering if this was not one more hallucination.
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