In 1974, Philip Roth wrote a satirical novel about baseball which he entitled The Great American Novel. The title refers to the parodies of a number of classic American novels in the book, but it also may be an answer to critics who keep waiting for him to write the great American novel and keep castigating him when he doesn't. From the time of the publication of his second novel, Letting Go, to the publication of his latest, The Professor of Desire , critics have been wondering aloud when Roth is going to stop squandering his enormous gifts and create the legitimate American masterpiece. The critical reaction in this regard is somewhat different than the kind that often greets second novels of promising young writers. It usually takes the form of an assertion of how good the book is of its kind and then asks why Roth would write this...