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| Portnoy's Complaint | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Roth
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.00
You Save: £4.99 (62%)
New (29) from £3.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 3397
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0099399016
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780099399018
ASIN: 0099399016
Publication Date: January 3, 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
Portnoy is a psychoanalyst's dream patient November 17, 2008
Alexander Portnoy is thirty three, reluctantly Jewish and confessing his life to his psychoanalyst, from being a five-year-old mother's boy, through formative years as a gifted student to his current status as New York's Assistant Commissioner of Human Opportunity.
Alex's is a life overshadowed by the memories of his parents smothering him with their expectations and cloying Jewish heritage. Poppa Jack is a modestly successful insurance salesman, but because he is the only Jew in the branch he gets the worst clientele and has to work doubly hard for his return. Momma Sophie wants to be just enough of a cut above her contemporaries for it to be noticeable, whilst she runs their home as the archetypal Jewish mother. Alex's early recollections capture the essence of growing up in Newark during the Second World War, as part of a family that runs the full gamut of experiences from anti-semitism to cousin Heshie dying on the Normandy beaches.
From the opening lines, Alexander whips his story along at racing speed, incisive and outrageously funny, completely besotted with his own burgeoning sexuality which Roth portrays in language that was condemned at the time and is no less abrupt today. No experience is spared his detailed remembrance and one wonders at the shear variety and energy required to sustain it.
Through the growing up and the frustrations and the awakening and the simply doing of it all, his constant fear of being exposed by his parents as a degenerate haunts his every thought whilst driving him on to do it again and again, and again. As Alex says to his confessor, "So I have desires - only they're endless. Endless!".
It is a compelling read and very, very funny.
 shockingly good October 8, 2008
I'm a complete newcomer to Philip Roth and picked this up on impulse in a second-hand bookshop (sorry amazon!). I loved it from start to finish and would recommend it to anyone, young, old, male or female, but with a few caveats. Firstly if you are coming new to it as I did, you might be surprised by the, shall we say frank-ness of the writing. I'm no prude but I was cringing as much as laughing during some of the more extreme passages. That a book written 40 years ago still has the power to shock is something - that its still worth reading and not just a passing fad is something else. Also, if you are at all familar with the tv show Curb Your Enthusiasm, it may be difficult not to read the whole book aloud in Larry David's voice inside your head; its very very Larry, and I suspect might have been a partial inspiration for his character on that show. Which is to say that it says a lot about being a modern Jewish male, with all the glories and hang-ups that (apparently) brings. Above all it manages to be enthralling without being remotely plot-driven and profound without being pretentious or heavy. Well done Mr Roth!
 A young man's world September 4, 2008
This was the second book by Roth that I have read, after Everyman, and by comparison I found it much less insightful to the human (male) condition. From the cover notes I was also expecting it to be funnier. There are some hilarious moments but it is certainly not a comedy. Maybe it is the focus on what a "good Jewish boy" should do that made it more difficult for me to identify with the main character. The agonising battle against guilt and his biology (sexual drive) can perhaps only truly make sense from a Jewish perspective of expectation. That said the style, of one book-long monologue, does help build an increasing tension and revelation. In the end it cleverly exposes the life of self-justification and essentially selfish, shallow existence, even if the apparent shackles are broken and every indulgence gratified. This is probably a book that would resonate with a 30-year old wondering where to go in life, but not so much a 50-year old wondering what it all meant.
Very funny November 10, 2007
I read this book in high school and found it very funny. It gave me an insight into teenage boys (and some of my later male friends) that I don't think I would have had otherwise. It is self-indulgent and a bit disgusting in some places, but I remember it as a good read.
Even in 2007 this is a great book!! October 26, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First, please do not be put off by the reviewer who states this book does not hold up in 2007. It does.
I read this book about 6 months ago and could not put it down. It's hysterically funny, it will make you cringe, and yes, even in 2007, it will shock you.
I've never written a review on Amazon before, but when I saw that someone had only given this book one star I had to give me opinion!! I'm not the world's biggest Phillip Roth fan by any stretch, but I read Portnoy's Complaint after I came accross it in a second hand book shop. It's clearly completely self-indulgent on Roth's part, but why not? In this case self-indulgence makes it all the more engaging and enjoyable to read. You will want to slap Portnoy accross the face, but you'll also want to see just exactly what idiotic and disgraceful things he'll do next.
Read this, you won't regret it!
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