Brühwiler considers the 'ambiguities of beginnings' in Philip Roth’s oeuvre, looking specifically at Roth’s representation of the evolution of an individual’s political self... Exceedingly well researched, Political Initiation in the Novels of Philip Roth covers a wide range of Roth’s novels and the intertexts within them. Putting this fiction into conversation with predominant thinking in the social sciences, Brühwiler’s work not only serves as a model for Roth studies, but also as a model for interdisciplinary research overall.