Predicting her own critical oversight, Albert’s offer to provide Roth with the child he never had functions as a cleverly layered metaphor, one that both plays ironically beyond the classic trope in which women offer their bodies in exchange for advancement in their fields, and simultaneously inspires womb envy in an era when women with professional goals are advised to postpone or avoid pregnancy altogether. Despite a number of book reviews in popular venues and scholarly publications alike-the majority of which praise Albert’s mastery of her craft-this article is the first act of literary scholarship that puts Albert in focus. A search of the Modern Language Association database reveals that no scholarly articles have been written on her to date. In this coda to her debut, Albert consciously seeks to join the Jewish-American literary tradition: ‘I am a young Jewish writer who idolizes you, cherishes your books, and reads them slowly, considers you the father of us all … but not actually a father yourself, Philip, so far as I know’ ( Albert, 2006: 183).Īlbert’s attempt to join the Jewish-American literary tradition thus far has not been as successful as we would expect.

In this letter, Albert offers to bear Roth’s progeny, and in so doing, provocatively offers her own stories and indeed, her career, as the offspring of Roth’s own. Elisa Albert’s 2006 short story collection How This Night Is Different ends boldly, with a letter written to Philip Roth entitled ‘Etta or Bessie or Dora or Rose’.

After Birth by Elisa Albert