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Summary: Vulgar as hell, but you've got to love it.
Review: Great work.
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Summary: Lewd, Crude and Dangerous to Know
Review: This is probably the most disgusting book I've ever read. I'm not prudish or easily shocked by what I read, but this was certainly difficult to take. I did persevere and got to the end (which is cleverly done), and some of it is very funny, but I didn't really enjoy it enough. I suppose the problem was: a) I'm not Jewish, b) I've never had a Jewish mother. The book is still funny without those advantages (we can all empathise after all) but I don't think you'll like it as much if you don't fulfill the two above categories.
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Summary: Good morning! Good evening! Good night!
Review: possibly the funniest novel i've read walking into doors, lamp posts, policemen, etc. excruciatingly funny and unputdownable. i refer you especially to the whole "good morning" episode. not one sexual reference in sight, yet the gags keep coming and coming. genius.
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Summary: One of the funniest books ever written
Review: Ok, all you high school whiners thinking that Holden Caulfield is talking your thoughts and saying your words for you, come on over to the ethnic side of the fence where the character is all Jewish (and not might be Jewish on his father's side if he really is a prototype for Seymour Glass) and isn't trapped by the whitebread prep school civility that makes Caulfield such a wimp in public. Since these books are used interchangeably in many reviews of coming-of-age books (as in "I grew up reading Catcher in the Rye and Portnoy's Complaint...") I compare. First off, this book is offensive. Chapter Two is entitled Whacking Off and has the quintessential "family knocking at the bathroom door while son jerks off and compares himself to a Dostoyevski character" scene. There are really terrible portrayals of women, but since it is from Portnoy's perspective its more a terrible portrayal of Portnoy. Unlike Caulfield, this character is outright nuts. There's no idealized Jane Gallagher to excuse why he treats all other girls shabbily, he just can't stand himself. Calling one girlfriend Monkey and going into fits at another girlfriend's parent's home in Iowa (I was using the gentile toilet!) he's a creep. His mother is the Jewish Mother. In fact after that Jewish American Princess in Goodbye Columbus and the Jewish Mother in Portnoy's Complaint, one wonders if Jewish women would be portrayed as Rebecca from Ivanhoe if it hadn't been for Roth. (ok, I assume that Roth did not invent these stereotypes, but he's a master at using them). Here's the apologetic statement -- Portnoy's Complaint is not about a great man but a troubled freak. Roth's characters are a study in the ambiguous ties of second generation Jews, not all that serious about being Jewish, but not eager to be accepted into the mainstream of American WASP society either. Portnoy's relationship with women is merely the most apparent version of this schism, in which he feels guilty/neurotic about having sex with WASP girls but he can't really go with Jewish girls either ("I couldn't get it up in the Holy Land. How's that for symbolism doc?") Ultimately Portnoy would be a tragic character if he wasn't such an unlikeable creep. Wonderful book. I would recommend NOT reading American Pastoral afterwards, it will only make you sad.
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Summary: A little diappointed
Review: I started reading Portnoy's complaint some time last year and I found it difficult.. I could only read it in little bits, the story is packed with humorous crude snippets of Jewish life ,and overloads your senses with exaggerated caricature..When I finally finished it last week, I guess I ended up liking the book..as a definitive book about Jewish American culture of the period, I think it is sadly lacking..Funny in parts, outrageously lewd throughout, some of the family scenes read like my own Jewish childhood in London..Either I missed the profound statement behind the book or there isn't one really..not focussed enough for my liking, but definitely interesing reading.
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Summary:
I love it!
Review: Ron Silver is Alexander Portnoy! I remember reading Portnoy's Complaint years ago - but I forgot how funny this great novel is! Even if you've read Portnoy 100 times - you have to listen to it! I promise - you will be laughing outloud!
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Summary: Portnoys Complaint
Review: This book is about releaving tension manually. The child spanks his monkey 24/7. He does it before dinner, durring dinner, and after dinner. Plus he is jewish. I couln't stop laghing.
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Summary: Growing up with self-abuse: the life of Alexander Portnoy
Review: Philip Roth has written a darkly bitter and comical book, focusing on the life, from birth to the beginnigs of middle age, of Alexander Portnoy and his grievances that stem from the combination of his insatiable sexual need with his rigid Jewish upbringing. In the form of a single monologue, Roth examines the psychological problems that arise from this mixture, resulting in a poignant and humourous book that is relevant to all
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Summary: A book Id never have picked up
Review: Out of boredom I picked up portnoys complaint. I could not and did not want to put it down,it was too funny!. There was no let up in the laughs untill well towards ther end of the book and then only for a moment. "I LOVE THIS BOOK"!
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Summary: A Classic!
Review: Ok kiddies! For those of you who didn't like this book (and said so in your reviews), allow me to shed some light on the situation. For those of you who didn't like the protagonist of the story (Alexander Portnoy), the reason is: Phillip Roth didn't want you to. Portnoy is not supposed to be a brave gentleman or hero. He is an anti-hero; an invention of Dostoevsky's. Alexander Portnoy is a modernized version of the self-loathing "underground man" archetype that Dostoevsky invented in "Notes from the Underground" and reappeared throughout the rest of his works. He is SUPPOSED to be self-loathing. You are SUPPOSED to be angered by him at times. Secondly, for those of you who did not like the "stream of consciousness" writing technique that Roth employed, perhaps you should ask yourself what writing style would have worked better. A straightforward narrative certainly wouldn't have captured all the emotion and frustration of the protagonist that this style does. Also, with the book being in the form of a 250 page "kvetch", it rarely gets boring because the prose follows the thoughts of the protagonist and humorous antecdotes "jump" out of nowhere throughout the text. Lastly, please do not read this book if you are easily offended by sexual references. For those of you who found the book more disgusting than humorous, what can you expect from a book in which chapter 2 is entitled "Whacking Off"?
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