Marco Roth: ‘The Scientists,’ and A Child’s Emotional Inheritance

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With the precociousness expected of the only child of a doctor and a classical musician, Marco Roth shared his parents’ New York world: house concerts, a private library of literary classics, and dinner discussions on the latest advances in medicine. But that world ended when Roth’s father contracted AIDS—and the one subject the family could not address came to dominate the lives of its surviving members, often in unexpected ways. Grappling with his troubled intellectual and emotional inheritance, n+1 founding editor Roth (in his debut memoir, The Scientists) tells the story of how we first learn from our parents—and learn to see them as separate individuals—and how precociousness can paradoxically impede our knowledge of others, and our discovery of ourselves. Presented by Town Hall as part of its Arts & Culture series, with Elliott Bay Book Company.

LEARN MORE:
Roth’s writings in N+1 Magazine