If you want to see Philip Roth's toothbrush, get in line. The Pulitzer prize-winning author's $3.2m New York apartment hit the market a couple of weeks ago, less than a year after his death. The Wall Street Journal reports that his belongings are still inside: “Mr Roth's shoes were still at his bedside, his sweaters were neatly folded in the closet and his toothbrush sat in its cup on the bathroom sink.”
Roth was my next-door neighbour. Last Sunday, I watched as prospective buyers filed in and out of the building all afternoon. While people understandably need to see a property before they buy it, Roth was a private man and my guess is he wouldn't have wanted complete strangers checking out his belongings. What do we get from knowing the dental hygiene preferences of the author of Portnoy's Complaint? Is it anybody's business?
To the listing agent's credit, she's doing the best she can with a difficult job. Roth's personal belongings are not being sold with the space; his estate attorneys simply put the apartment on the market without removing them. But does that make the situation less macabre?
