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Portnoy's Complaint ()


Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century (52)

This is the great novel of the Jewish experience in America--if you believe that experience can be reduced to Jewish mothers as castrating haridans and Jewish young men masturbating until guilt finally makes them completely impotent like the Jewish fathers who flit around in the background.

A dreadful book.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (F)


Websites:

Phillip Roth Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Philip Roth
    -INTERVIEW: It Didn't Happen Here: Philip Roth explains that though he dislikes our current national politics, the alternatives were once much worse. (John Freeman, 12/22/04, Seattle Weekly)
    -PROFILE: A Comedian of Guilt (Albert Goldman, Feb. 7, 1969, Life)
    -INTERVIEW: In conversation with Philip Roth: We discuss manipulation, obscenity, and gender fluidity (JOYCE CAROL OATES, 9/02/22, UnHerd)
    -
   
-ESSAY: Why Philip Roth, Why Now?: Answers from Susan Choi, Ayad Akhtar, and Other Participants of “Philip Roth Unbound: Illuminating a Literary Legacy” Festival (Literary Hub, March 13, 2023)
    -ESSAY: Writer on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: The Time Philip Roth Lied to Me: Barbara Shulgasser-Parker Illuminates the Perverse Side to the Famed Writer (Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, 4/07/22, LitHub)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: ROTH’S WRATH (Jeffrey Meyers, Fall 2021, Modern Age)
    -LIST: The Best Philip Roth Books: Philip Roth was one of the great contemporary American novelists. He wrote about what he saw when he looked in the mirror, even when he didn't like it, and claimed his only real interest was writing about what made him feel uncomfortable. Roth's literary biographer, Ira Nadel, Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, talks us through Philip Roth's novels and explains why they're worth reading. (Interview by Eve Gerber, 2/15/22, 5 Books)
    -ESSAY: Twilight of the Satyrs (Charlotte Allen, 8/11/21, Quillette)
    -ESSAY: Philip Roth biography: Compelling chronicle of a great unrehabilitated American master Biography (Paul Perry, April 11 2021, Independent ie)
    -ESSAY: Arendt and Roth: An Uncanny Convergence: Despite very different lives, the two writers not only knew and liked each other, but also found common cause in the great concerns that animated their work. (Corey Robin, May 12, 2021, NY Review of Books)
    -ESSAY: The Tourist: Philip Roth’s Czech KGB file (JARED MARCEL POLLEN, APRIL 06, 2021, The Tablet)
    -ESSAY: The plot against Philip Roth: If the author was such a vile misogynist, why did so many women seem to find him so irresistible? (Damian Reilly, 3/22/21, The Spectator)
    -ESSAY: The Limits of Representation: Huda Awan Finds Herself in Portnoy’s Complaint: “How much can fictional representation actually achieve in acting as a foundation for self-respect?” (Huda Awan, March 3, 2021, Lit Hub)
    -ESSAY: Philip Roth and the “Writers from the Other Europe” Series (Neglectged Books, 5 March 2021)
    -REVIEW: of The Plot Against America (Tim Appelo, Seattle Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth By Benjamin Taylor (Mairead Small Staid, LA Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of PHILIP ROTH: THE BIOGRAPHY BY BLAKE BAILEY (CHRISTIAN LORENTZEN, BookForum)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (James Parker, The Atlantic)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (Charles Caramelloo, Washington Independent Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (Elaine Showalter, TLS)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (Nic Rowan, American Conservative)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (Alexander C Kafka, Independent)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (Boyd Tonkin, UnHerd)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (Adam kirsch, Tablet)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (John Day, Prospect)
    -REVIEW: of Philip Roth (

Book-related and General Links:
    -ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA: Your search: "philip roth"
    -BIO: ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA: Roth, Philip   b. March 19, 1933, Newark, N.J., U.S.
    -Philip Roth Web Page
    -Philip Roth research homepage
    -FEATURED AUTHOR: archive of reviews, essays, etc. (NY Times Book Review)
    -Philip Roth REVIEW ARCHIVE: from The New York Review of Books
    -The Adventures of Philip Roth (Norman Podhoretz, Commentary Magazine)
    -ESSAY: DID THE 1960'S DAMAGE FICTION?  (Benjamin DeMott, NY Times Book Review)
    -ESSAY: twilight of the old goats: Mailer, Roth and Bellow refuse to go quietly (D.T. Max, Salon)
    -REVIEW: of Leaving a Doll's House Claire Bloom (Katharine Whittamore, Salon)
    -ESSAY: Evolution (I a n S h o a l e s, Salon)
    -REVIEW:  Alfred Kazin: Up Against the Wall, Mama!, NY Review of Books
        Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
    -Reading Guide: American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Vintage Books, Random House)
    -LINKS: to Reviews, etc.
    -ESSAY: End Notes Ralph McInerny On the Two Kinds of Writers (Crisis)
    -ESSAY: Liberty and the Virtue of Prudence: A Catholic Perspective (Todd R. Flanders, Doctoral Candidate in Christian Ethics, Boston College)(The Journal of Markets and Morality:  Scholarship for a Humane Economy)
    -ESSAY:  In praise of William Jefferson Clinton  RUB YOUR EYES IN DISBELIEF, BUT DAVID HOROWITZ THINKS THE MAN FROM HOPE HAS HELPED BRING THIS NATION BACK TOGETHER AGAIN (David Horowitz, Salon)
    -REVIEW: of American Pastoral: A Postwar Paradise Shattered From Within (Michiko Kakutani, NY Times)
    -ESSAY: The curse of the Pulitzer?  WILL THE NEW YORK TIMES PUT BOOK CRITIC MICHIKO KAKUTANI OUT TO PASTURE NOW THAT SHE'S WON THE BIG  PRIZE? (DWIGHT GARNER, Salon)
    -REVIEW:  Elizabeth Hardwick: Paradise Lost, NY Review of Books
        American Pastoral by Philip Roth
    -REVIEW: PHILIP ROTH'S ETERNAL THINGS (Mayer Schiller, National Review)
    -REVIEW: The Trouble With Swede Levov (MICHAEL WOOD, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: The Life of Job in Exurbia ( Ralph Lombreglia, The Atlantic)
    -REVIEW: THE WICKED IRONIST IS BACK - WITH A COMPASSIONATE VERSION OF THE `AMERICAN PASTORAL (Gail Caldwell, Boston Globe)
    -REVIEW: Blown Away A father's hold on the American Dream explodes in Philip Roth's novel of the turbulent '60s  (Joshua  Kosman, SF Chronicle)
    -REVIEW: Innocence Lost  Philip Roth's American fulminations (Paul Berman, Slate)
    -REVIEW: (Albert Mobilio, Salon)
    -REVIEW:  Visions of the American Beserk  (Paul Gediman, Boston Review)
    -REVIEW:  (Bob Powers, Columbus Free Press)
    -REVIEW: (Curled Up)
    -REVIEW: (The Seattle Times, Erik Lundegaard)
    -REVIEWS: Epinions.com - American Pastoral
    -REVIEW: Roth lacks energetic brilliance of past novels in 'American Pastoral'  (KEVIN STOLLER, The Daily Barometer)
    -REVIEW: An American golden boy's rise and explosive fall (Larry Watson, Milwaukee  Journal Sentinel)
    -REVIEW: Life is Just a Short Period of Time in Which You Are Alive (Jay Kaplan, Culture Front)
    -REVIEW: WHEN SHE WAS BAD: PHILIP ROTH, ONCE THE WAYWARD SON, PRODUCES A POWERFUL NOVEL ABOUT A PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE (R.Z. SHEPPARD, TIME)
    -REVIEW: Humor, family and religion essential in `American Pastoral' (Bruce A. Nathan, Associated Press)
    -REVIEW: Miss America turns bomber. Do you still blame the parents?  (Tim Adams, Guardian/Observer, UK)
    -REVIEW:(Steve Brzezinski, Antioch Review)
    -ESSAY: Is This Picasso, or Is it the Jews? A Family Portrait at the End of History (Mark Shechner, Tikkun)
    -Best Books for Reading Groups: 20.American Pastoral by Philip Roth
    -ESSAY: Bellow at 85, Roth at 67 (Norman Podhoretz, Commentary)

Comments:

My heavens you are silly. You don't need to find the book funny, but you do need to realize that the book is totally a parody of its central character's whininess.

- OH BILLEY

- Aug-28-2006, 13:33

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Just cause you don't like reading about alex jerking off into a piece of liver (that his family eats later!!) on home is way home is no reason to not give this brilliant author a bad review. jews don;t have a monopoly on sexual guilt and repression, but we suer do have Olympic Class neuroses from it!

- Shvantz-O-Matic

- Jan-07-2005, 00:53

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This review sucked. I can't even fathom what google is thinking by allowing this to even appear in the top 1000 searchs for criticism of Portnoy's Complaint. What a jerk!

- beeyotch

- Nov-29-2004, 19:13

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What a terrible and lazy review of a great book.

You're a schmuck.

- Shlomo

- Jun-22-2004, 14:19

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Your review is unintelligent. Stop writing things that people can read. You're doing us all a diservice. I bet your ugly too.

- Young

- Jun-14-2004, 20:41

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Are you the Michael Medved of literary criticism?

- Andy

- Aug-08-2003, 10:46

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Yes, that's the point. It's 2003, do you really still believe in Freud?

- oj

- Jul-08-2003, 23:56

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What a terrible, lazy review. I relate to this book even though I am a goy - think of it as Freudian psychosexuality. The writing also is incredible, swift and engaging, this is the kind of book which is both complex and fluid enough to be finished in one sitting.

- Zack

- Jul-08-2003, 23:50

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You're absolutely right. Guilt and shame don't really exist. Especially for Jewish people. Oh, and sex is so gross too, doncha think?

- Heath

- Jul-04-2003, 04:26

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