Philip Roth's former neighbor: Give the guy some privacy

Prospective buyers of the late Philip Roth’s New York City condo have been able to admire much more than the view.

A few weeks after the $3.2 million property was listed, his former neighbor Terena Bell lamented in the Guardian that the author’s items were still on display — think shoes by the bed, toothbrush by the sink — as if he’d simply been out of town while buyers browsed his home.

And to be fair, Bell acknowledged, the real estate agent was put in this position by the estate attorneys who listed the apartment without removing Roth’s items.

But it set her to reflecting on the differences between touring a recently deceased author’s home and strolling past the places where long-ago authors once lived.

Read her essay in the Guardian, and if you’re curious, we think we’ve identified the listing for Roth’s apartment (does that make us the kind of looky-loo that Bell is frowning upon?).

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