Portnoy's Complaint [Paperback]

Philip Roth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1995

The famous confession of Alexander Portnoy who is thrust through life by his unappeasable sexuality, yet held back at the same time by the iron grip of his unforgettable childhood.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Along with Saul Bellow's Herzog, Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint defined Jewish American literature in the 1960s. Roth's masterpiece takes place on the couch of a psychoanalyst, an appropriate jumping-off place for an insanely comical novel about the Jewish American experience. Roth has written several great books--Goodbye, Columbus and When She Was Good among them, but it is perhaps Portnoy's Complaint for which he is best known. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The 25th-anniversary edition of Roth's classic novel features a new afterword by the author.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099399016
• ISBN-13: 978-0099399018
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,606,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In the 1990s Philip Roth won America's four major literary awards in succession: the National Book Critics Circle Award for Patrimony (1991), the PEN/Faulkner Award for Operation Shylock (1993), the National Book Award for Sabbath's Theater (1995), and the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for American Pastoral (1997). He won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union for I Married a Communist (1998); in the same year he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. Previously he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Counterlife (1986) and the National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus (1959). In 2000 he published The Human Stain, concluding a trilogy that depicts the ideological ethos of postwar America. For The Human Stain Roth received his second PEN/Faulkner Award as well as Britain's W. H. Smith Award for the Best Book of the Year. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, given every six years "for the entire work of the recipient." In 2005 The Plot Against America received the Society of American Historians Award for "the outstanding historical novel on an American theme for 2003--2004." In 2007 Roth received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Everyman.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

167 of 178 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Can't Believe No One Ever Told Me About This Book, July 23, 2000

By 

oh_pete (Cambridge. MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Portnoy's Complaint (Paperback)

After reading PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, I find myself scrambling to recall whether I have ever read another American novel anywhere near as hysterically funny. Maybe Tom Robbins's SKINNY LEGS AND ALL is in the same ballpark (and I've yet to read CATCH-22) but Roth simply had my head spinning while I read this book. My jaw is still on the floor, in fact.

Esoterically, this book is one long rant about the joys and (more heavily) the anguishes of growing up Jewish in America in the forties and fifties. It's 1966 and successful civil servant Alexander Portnoy is on the psychiatrist's couch trying to get out all his Oedipal, inferiority, and sexual fetish complexes.

That infamous masturbation scene in the movie AMERICAN PIE? A direct descendent of Mrs. Portnoy's piece of liver!

More deeply, if you can stand it, this book seriously examines the struggle of growing up with smothering parents: Alex's both put him on a pedestal and criticize everything he does. He's unmarried at thirty-three in part because of all the neuroses his parents have bestowed in him--so why doesn't he get married and have children already? Alex lets us know in pornographic detail why. Speaking of pornographic detail, Alex spends plenty of time on his ultimately doomed affairs with (mostly Protestant) women. Most of his anger at growing up Jewish in a Christian-dominated society he takes out on these "shikses"--variously called Pumpkin, the Pilgrim and the Monkey--this is not a politically correct book from the feminist perspective. It does, however, raise serious questions about what it means to be a human being, as opposed to just a hyphenated-American.

PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT is brash, profane and wonderful. It is certainly not for the faint-hearted or those with what were once considered "polite sensibilities." But it is a very moral book in it's own way. Portnoy knows he's no hero, and Roth doesn't portray him as such--in some ways the book is one big joke. Every effective joke has its kernel of truth; Roth's have the whole can of corn.

I never expected a novel that is one long rant to inspire a review that is one long rave, but there it is.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pushed That 60's Envelope Right Over The Edge, September 25, 2006

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Portnoy's Complaint (Paperback)

This review refers to "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth...

The last time I read this book was in the early 70's. It's been sitting on my bookcase, pages yellowing, cover hanging on by a thread, for more then 35 years. It never saw a yard sale, or the donation bin. But for some reason I carried it with me, from home to home, and it has been around longer then either of my husbands. Yet,I hadn't pulled it out for another read until recently. I'd forgotten what a fun ride it was.

When this book came out, it was THE hot book to read. It pushed the envelope right over the edge, even considering the "free love" attitude of the era.Alex Portnoy, a Jewish man in his thirties, trying to come to grips with his life, gives a blow by blow account of his childhood, complete with his overbearing stereo-typical Jewish parents,the fabulous use of the Yiddish expressions he picked up, his very active(and quite descriptive) sexual activities from very early on in his pubescent years to his adulthood, and the relationships with the various women he used and abused over the years.

Alex is a character we love to hate. At times he is even infuriating(this might especially apply to female readers), but Roth's way of giving the very shallow Alex depth is wonderful. Alex's story unfolds, as he unleashes his escapades on a Dr's couch, with a rapier wit,and an amusingly self-deprecating style. At times he seems to ramble on and go off on tangents, only to have the these tangents artfully come back to complete the story.The writing style is an in your face, laugh out loud delight.

Had I written this review the first time I read this, no doubt I would have gone 5 stars plus. Here and now in the 21st century, when just about anything goes, this material may not have quite the effect it had in 1969. Other then that, I still laughed out loud, and couldn't put it down, as I followed Alex's escapades over the years.

A very funny book, a great read, I think especially for aspiring writers to check out. It may not be for everyone though, the language and events are explicit and very much "R" rated!

Enjoy the read....Laurie

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54 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Impotent Mensch, April 3, 2001

By 

Cole, A Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portnoy's Complaint (Paperback)

Portnoy's Complaint is one of the most wildly inventive books I have ever read. The book, long considered a classic if for nothing more than its amazingly effective stream-of consciousness technique, is a Roth tour-de-force of macabre emotions, painful truth, and biting sarcasm. The story as such concerns a middle-aged Jewish man, Alex Portnoy ranting to his analyst about the struggles of growing up Jewish in a world populated by goyim. The book is framed as one big monologue in which Alex tells us about everything from his mother's fanatical devotion to the rules of eating kosher to his relationships with women. What's so striking about the book is the sheer strength of will on which it floats. The book plows ahead with its ugly, hilarious, painful, unbearable, engaging, sick narrator with nary a break in between. In attempting to find a cure for why Alex is so sex-obsessed, he at first seems to believe his mother's doting on him is the primary cause. Gradually, however, the reader (as well as Alex) becomes aware that Alex also suffers from a more subtle but affecting problem. The man is a classic text-book narcissist. He masturbates nearly every waking moment as a teenager not as a way of finding sexual gratification from the nature of his relationship with his mother, but because he is so self-absorbed that the act itself is a form of lust (for the self). This haunting narcissism is ultimately what causes him to never be able to commit to a woman seriously, and why he scars The Monkey so terribly (and memorably in a Rome hotel room), demeans the Italian hooker, and nearly rapes a woman in the Holy Land. He feels that by gaining control over these women, he will somehow become more potent himself. Thus, he gets his sexual gratification by inflicting pain on women. Mistakenly, this book is labelled as misogynistic because of alex's terrible crimes. But there's a clear distinction between the narrator's persona and what Roth is really trying to impart to the reader. The characters in the book are all sharply drawn. The memorable moments abound (try not to stand with mouth wide open as Alex describes defiling the family's dinner) or try refraining from expressing disgust at the inhumane way he treats the Monkey. This book is full of emotional honesty and pain. It is about not just Alex's obsession, but about the struggle that everyone experiences to escape the narrowness of our own lives. In that way, despite his reprehensible behavior, Alex represents a kind of hero. An unlikely one, perhaps, but a hero nonetheless. It is this aspect of the book that is most satisfying. Mr. Roth also vividly recreates Alex's childhood in Newark and Jersey City including priceless characterizations of Sophie and Jack, his parents. However, the book skimps on the other characters, especially Alex's sister, Hannah. Also, there are many minor characters mentioned that pop in and out of the book with no real explanation. Aunt Clara, for example, appears early in the book, and then is mentioned in a single sentence more than a hundred pages later. These inconsistencies lower the star rating slightly. The other, more important flaw in the book is the nature of alex's "Complaint". As I mentioned earlier, the reader gradually realizes the real symptom of the illness, but the book seems to keep believing that it is Mrs. Portnoy who causes Alex to be so sexually inept and voracious. It's almost as if Roth wants to convery the more subtle problem and keeps the bits with mom in them for shock value and laughs. This aspect is somewhat disappointing. Roth seems to want to have it both ways. Also, the fact that narcissism is the real disease becomes quite clear, and still Roth never delves into the triger for this behavior. For a book that is so specifically about Portnoy's sexual idiosyncracies and inability to be satisfied, there is never a clear link as to why Portnoy channels his insecurity in this manner. This is Roth's (almost) fatal error. He vividly describes the symptoms, but not the cause. Ultimately, the novel is redeemed on the strength of its characters and emotional pain. Although readers may never know precisely why Alex is the way he is, the hilarious, shocking, and at times unbearably sad portrayal of his life is what remains indelible about this book. It's also, I think, why it's reputation is still so high. Overall, i recommend the book with those reservations. Perhaps a bit overrated by the Modern Library, but a landmark book nonetheless. Grade: B+