PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT

Philip Roth

Portnoy's complaint

Patrick Book

Profane yes, but hilarious and cutting. One of the most compelling extended monologues I've read.

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 fur 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 relationship.

Portnoy's Complaint

mic shulman

Lamento di Portnoy

Valeria M

2 stelle solo perché si tratta di Roth. Un libro veramente brutto che a quanto pare non sono stata in grado di comprendere.

Trever

Strong start, but as Portnoy devolves, so does the humor.

Gianluigi

Kevin Bertolero

Who knew you could write about masturbation for 274 pages. It’s entirely unnecessary, but here we are.

Daryl Houston

Funny from beginning to end (often laugh-out-loud funny, and then laugh-even-more funny when reading bits of it aloud to your spouse) but with a core of awful lonely sadness. It reads like something between stand-up and eloquent but extemporaneous speech. This is my first Roth but not my last.

Lindsay Cronk

It was all downhill after that masturbation chapter. 

Not to whine or seem prudish. And I know that books about self-involved assholes can be good. I just don't think that this one was anything but redundant.

PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT

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