Philip Roth: Novels 1967-1972: When She Was Good / Portnoy's Complaint / Our Gang / The Breast (Library of America) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Ross Miller (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For the last half century, the novels of Philip Roth have re-energized American fiction and redefined its possibilities. Roth's comic genius, his imaginative daring, his courage in exploring uncomfortable truths, and his assaults on political, cultural, and sexual orthodoxies have made him one of the essential writers of our time. By special arrangement with the author, The Library of America now inaugurates the definitive edition of Roth's collected works. This second volume presents four extraordinarily diverse works displaying the range and originality of his fictional art.

When She Was Good (1967) is the trenchant portrait of Lucy Nelson, a young midwestern woman whose perception of her own suffering turns her into a ferocious force, "enemy-ridden and unforgivingly defiant," as Roth would later describe her. A small-town 1940s America of restrictive social pressures and foreclosed opportunities provides the novel's background.

The publication of the hilarious Portnoy's Complaint (1969) was a cultural event that turned Roth into a reluctant celebrity. The confession of a bewildered psychoanalytic patient thrust through life by his unappeasable sexuality yet held back by the iron grip of his unforgettable childhood, Portnoy unleashed Roth's comic virtuosity and opened new avenues for American fiction.

In Our Gang (1971), described by Anthony Burgess as a "brilliant satire in the real Swift tradition," Roth effects a savage takedown of the administration of Richard Nixon (who figures here as Trick E. Dixon). Written before the revelations of the Watergate scandal, Our Gang continues to resonate as a broad and outraged response to the clownish hypocrisy and moral theatrics of the American political scene.

The Kafkaesque excursion The Breast (1972) introduces David Kepesh in the first volume of a trilogy that continues with The Professor of Desire (1977) and The Dying Animal (2001). The Breast prompted Cynthia Ozick to remark, "One knows when one is reading something that will permanently enter the culture."

From the Inside Flap

In this, the second volume of The Library of America's definitive edition of the collected works of Philip Roth, published by special arrangement with the author, the range and inventiveness of Roth's fiction is dazzlingly displayed: the somber and penetrating realism of When She Was Good (1967); the daring verbal wit of his comic masterpiece Portnoy's Complaint (1969), which made Roth a reluctant literary celebrity; the unrestrained political satire of Our Gang (1971), his Swiftian takedown of the Nixon administration; and the fantasy of The Breast (1972), featuring the debut of Roth protagonist David Kepesh as he endures a metamorphosis worthy of Kafka or Gogol.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Library of America; First Edition edition (August 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931082804
• ISBN-13: 978-1931082808
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #255,906 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When She Was Good is very, very good, June 11, 2007

By	Raquelita (Guanajuato, GTO Mexico) - See all my reviews

If I remember correctly, this book was trashed on the front page of the NY Times Book Review section forty years ago because the reviewer thought a young Jew should not or could not write about small town WASP America. I could not disagree more, both in principle and after reading the novel several years later. I was relieved to find the writer (a man!) would take the trouble to write about a young woman who had marched in her high school band and worked at the Dairy Queen. The book jacket described her as the all-American bitch but I doubt this was Roth's full intention. The ending was beautifully written and so believable it affected my own behavior. Some of the most memorable pages in Roth's prizewinning American Pastoral reminded me of When She Was Good, a book even Roth usually overlooks in talking about his work. Too bad the review may have had a searing effect for a long time.

11 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Portnoy's Complaint' is the book Roth will live by, September 4, 2005

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

'When She was Good' is not very good.
'The Breast' is a bad- taste joke which cannot approach the Kafka or Gogol that are its inspiration.
'Portnoy's Complaint' is Roth's masterpiece. And even if he has shown through subsequent years great staying power, and considerable seriousness, and truly outstanding work ( Parts of 'American Pastoral' and 'Patrimony' for example) this is the one work in which he reveals what he best has to give.
It is arguably one of the funniest books ever written, and deeply poignant one.
It is an American classic and justifies Roth's place in this series.

6 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Redundant for true fans; baffling for his enemies, August 31, 2005

By	Sufi66 (NJ) - See all my reviews

This would make a great gift. It's an honor for Philip Roth
to be included in this series. He has never written a bad book. Just give him the Noble prize for literature and be done with it. Thanks for a lifetime of serious laughs and the playful insights,Phil.