Rating: 
Summary: Roth's Running Dry
Review: He's one of my all-time favorite novelists, but he's running out of gas. American Pastoral was endless, repetitive, and without substance. And Sabbath's Theater is more of the same. Roth seems to have no trouble spinning out the droll sentences, but there's no there there. Nothing really happens, the protagonist reveals his thoughts a lot, you keep waiting for the payoff. Give him his Nobel and let him rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Scary and hilarious
Review: For some time now, I've been convinced that Woody Allen wants to be Philip Roth. This scary and hilarious book has put the Woodman in his place; he's got nothing on Roth when it comes to Jewish depravity, guilt, smarts, and ribald hilarity. An utterly mesmerizing portrait of self-absorbtion gone even further wrong than usual, this book will move you, make you laugh, and shudder with a combination of sadness and relief that you are not Mickey Sabbath.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel on a sensitive men's life in the 90's
Review: I've read this book feeling sympathetic with Sabbath as he doesn't stick to the regular narrow-minded moral framework. Like probably any person that lives outside society's frontiers, his experiences in life didn't match his "character",e.g. he doesn't come along with his first wife's disappearing. His solution in trying to overcome such contradictions is to consider persons as puppets to play with ( that's my explanation for Roth's letting him be a puppeteer ). The novel starts at the point where this solution is knocked down, too: After having been suspended from his job (where he used to play with students), he had met his mistress (to play with); after she disappears, too ( by death ), he sees no more opportunity to go on playing and hate is the only feeling to stay.Though I think this book touches the most important topics of today's life, such as the disastrous results sexistic feminism has on men's opportunities in life, it fails to be original. Lots of presently published books ( "Wie man's nimmt" by Norbert Niemann, to name one ) show the problem but no idea how to solve it. That's what makes me keep back one star.
Rating:
Summary: Sabbath Puts the Id back in Yid
Review: A long time ago Alexander Portnoy (in an early Roth novel, Portnoy's Complaint) entreated someone, anyone, to put the id back in Yid. Mickey Sabbath, the dirty old man who is the central character in Sabbath's Theater, does just that, and more. Sabbath acts on every instinctive urge that comes his way, never stopping to imagine consequences. And those urges push him to sexual and other behavior that is always bizarre, and often downright shocking. At times I could not believe what I was reading. Yet at least a part of Sabbath's complicated motivation stems from his fear -- utter revulsion, really -- of death and all it entails. Death prevents Sabbath from seeing the need to ever conform to societal norms. And that blindness makes him a terribly tragic, yet very funny guy. There are portions of this book that blew me away, like Roth's/Sabbath's (sometimes it's hard to determine who's doing the talking) observations about marriage, infidelity, sex, death, art, academia, etc. Sabbath is ultimately a revolting character, and evokes little sympathy for his horrible plight. Yet he's one of the most fascinating characters in literature I've ever come across. This book is incredible and very worth reading. But be warned, it's not for the squeamish. If you haven't read Roth, start with Portnoy and imagine what he might have become if everything in his life went wrong.
Rating:
Summary: A very disturbant pupeteer
Review: At first I thought this would be one heavy reading. But as I went along, I felt something going. I can't deny that the sexual content improved my interest a lot, but there is something more. Something that tells you about human nature and some dark secrets we try to keep hidden. Leaves you with some thoughts that don't help you go to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Why go on?
Review: This is an intense book that challenges the reader to be compasionate toward a self-absorbed and thoroughly confused puppeteer. Mickey Sabbath spends his entire adult life trying to understand life by endulging in extreme sex and he tries to control life by manipulating others as he did his "finger puppets". The only questions remaining are 1.) Is it Nikki who has been visiting Mickey's parents' graves? 2.) Does Mickey, like Nikki, just vanish? Mickey's suffering and loss sends him on a self-destructive journey where he finally discovers that the most important thing in life is being alive and that the most important thing about being alive is knowing someone loves (loved) you. That is why Mickey goes on.
Rating:
Summary: One of Roth's finest novels
Review: Having read several of Roth's novels ("Zuckerman Unbound", "Operation Shylock", "Portnoy's Complaint", etc.), I can say that "Sabbath's Theater" ranks among his best - and among the best american fiction in recent years. This is a book that, right from the first sentence, grabs the reader by the collar, makes him scream, laugh and cry. It's like a roller coaster for the soul, with scenes of brilliant humor joining others of intense pathos. I tell you, I even wept reading some pages, and that does not happen often when I read a book - specially if such pages describe people remembering how they made oral sex and urinated on each other. But don't get me wrong. Far from being a book about odd sexual relations, this is a serious reflection on the passing of time, frustration and loss, and about the inevitable destiny of us all. As Prospero says in the quotation that opens the book: "Every third thought shall be my grave". So is Mickey Sabbath's, and so will be the reader's after finishing this magnificent book.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible read
Review: I have never read any of Philip Roth's novels before, I am a true out-and-out Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Nabokov fan, but for some reason the other day, I happened to pick up a copy of "Sabbath's Theater" from my local bookstore. From the first line in the book, I was transfixed by this richly painted character Sabbath, a perfect "dirty old man" but not one that you are scared of, one who warms your heart as you are transported into his world, from his dreams and wishes, to his fears and lusts. The reader is immediately immersed into Philip Roth's wonderfully bleak world. Anyone with half a brain will read this book over and over as I know I will for years to come
Rating:
Summary: A tour with Priapus through hell
Review: Approaching the age when most men think wistfully about the way sex used to be, Roth rages against the dying of tumescence. Containing some of the most brilliantly written and intense scenes in Post War of the Sexes literature, this book titillates, then frustrates and finally unnerves the reader with the psychological terror of its protagonist, Mickey Sabbath, as he faces the inevitable decline. This is definitely not beach reading, or Penthouse Forum literature. Sabbath's Theater is the most frightening book I've read in years even scarier than Stephen King
Rating:
Summary: A great tour de force
Review: into the life of a man driven to ruin, but remarkable to watch - given the great prose of philip roth... so who should play Mickey and Drenka in the movie?
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