This book is a poignant story of lives touched by the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s, but is also about human passions and frailties, about how we delude ourselves in various ways, and about the ways in which people inspire and hurt each other. I have never understood why some people say all of Roth's books are alike. I get something new from each, and am not particularly bothered by the images of women in his books.