REUTERS/Eric Thayer Author Philip Roth, who was both hailed and derided for laying bare the neuroses and obsessions that haunted the modern Jewish-American experience, died on Tuesday at the age of 85. Roth wrote more than 30 books, and won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel "American Pastoral." In reflection of his 50-plus years as a writer, Roth described it as: "Exhilaration and groaning.