Phillip Roth's golden autumn continues.

Second in the loose trilogy of books looking at post war America, this book homes in on McCarthyism like a heat seeking missile.

The story of a working class, self educated man who becomes a national radio star and marries a silent movie mega star. As McCarthyism sets in and their marriage starts to crumble, she denounces him as a Communist.

As the story unfolds, the widespread effect of McCarthyism, of lives blighted and dreams unknowingly thwarted by covert political operations is brilliantly described.

This powerful novel also explodes a stick of dynamite under Claire Bloom, Roth's former wife, who is the thinly vieled model for the up her own arse actress Eve Frame.

Fantastic