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Loading... Portnoy's Complaint (original 1969; edition 2005)by Philip Roth
Work InformationPortnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1969)
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not hard to understand the popularity of this book. there really is 'something for everyone' (male readers only). ostensibly, we have the humorous aspect of the work. there are some nice 'tongue in cheek' (so to speak) riffs. however, the real achievement here is the sleek embodiment of the modern reactionary (and curiously freudian) notion that all so-called 'do gooders' are motivated, at least in part, by psychosis. Not what I expected - the ego contending with the id for superiority. The central conceit here is the urge for self-gratification, mainly symbolized in sex, masturbatory and otherwise, that stands in for the author's urge to write or the mind's desire for acceptance. Roth's picture of Jewish domestic life, with its neuroses and absurdities, influenced a lot of later comedy from Woody Allen to Jerry Seinfeld, who seem like pale imitations in comparison. The profanity and sexual abandon might turn off some readers, but this is one of the funniest novels I have ever read. Roth writes with an honesty that, like his hero Alex Portnoy, is part perverted schmuck and part misunderstood genius. no reviews | add a review
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Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:The groundbreaking novel that propelled its author to literary stardom: told in a continuous monologue from patient to psychoanalyst, Philip Roth's masterpiece draws us into the turbulent mind of one lust-ridden young Jewish bachelor named Alexander Portnoy. Portnoy's Complaint n. [after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: 'Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. "The Puzzled Penis," Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationshi No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Is this why an essentially Jewish Hollywood movie industry fetishized and then spat out the blonde temptress? Is it Jewishness that is responsible for what is seen today as the objectification of women? Portnoy in name (Port Noir) is the black gate to, depravity, guilt, insecurity or what? By culminating in Portnoy's failed attempt to rape a red-headed Jewish/Israeli girl (his monstrous mother) due to lack of an erection, it is as though nothing is resolved. It's an extraordinary diatribe of a book that eventually just peters out (literally in a series of dots) with a weak punchline - exhausted.
The blurb says it is a funny book and I did laugh out- loud a few times:
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