For Cincinnati-based musician, writer, and Jewish educator Matthew Check, writing his memoir “What Would Phillip Roth Do?” was as windy and surprising a journey as the life he wrote about.
Check is originally from the Philadelphia suburbs and began writing music at an early age, and even studied English in college. He didn’t find himself writing for fun until long after college.
In his early 30s, Check started taking writing classes in 2014 “for fun,” beginning with a personal essay course. As he started writing more essays, he realized he was writing a memoir.
“I didn’t realize I was writing it,” he said. “I was doing the exercises — just these short stories were coming out of it.”
Check’s work on his memoir spanned continents, literally. His writing teacher and eventual editor moved to Bolivia. Check continued to take classes over Skype, but eventually he ventured to Bolivia to work on some of his early drafts.
“She just got my humor,” he said. “I kept taking writing lessons from her online… and the further and further I got into it, I realized I was writing this book.”
His teacher eventually became his publisher. After years of submitting his writing to publishing houses, he got a message from his former teacher that she was starting a publishing company and wanted to publish “What Would Phillip Roth Do?”
The book contains a selection of stories from Check’s life. It’s part coming of age, part finding recovery, tales of broken hearts, paths not taken, and a couple of embarrassing love songs.
“It was a little bit about my search for the perfect woman,” he said. “And the other part is about the banjo and bluegrass and songwriting — a version of my origin story.”
Check started making music with his brother and in bands in high school, playing everywhere they could in the late 1990s.
“Our first gig was at Starbucks,” he said. “We sold the CDs off the back of our car.”
It was after he started playing music that he got bitten by the bluegrass bug.
“Something about the music—it just resonated with me,” he said. “There’s like an unspoken choreography, who’s gonna sing lead, who takes a solo. It’s very much like, everybody bring your gear. We’re gonna do this.”
Check’s memoir also deals with his sobriety and the road to recovery.“It stops being funny after a certain age,” he added. “It’s not fun or funny to be the guy who’s still drinking too much.”
It was something he knew he wanted to include, and his editor encouraged him to do so.
“There’s a lot of drinking in the book,” he said. “But Wendy [my editor] told me, don’t make it about recovery. Let the drinking be part of it.”
As for the title, Check didn’t figure it out until after he started reading Phillip Roth in his 30s. When he started reading Roth’s work, he felt like it was a revelation.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is me.’ I felt like he was this older uncle I was never going to get to meet,” he said.
Check is hosting a book release party on Oct. 17, featuring a reading, conversation, and performance by local Blue Grass artist Jake Speed.
“It’s gonna be a musical book launch variety show,” he said. “We’ll play some songs, do a reading, and just have fun with it. You never know where a song — or a story — is going to take you.”
You can find “What Would Phillip Roth Do?” for sale here.
