Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth (novel #197)

Whew! Have I got grievances! Do I harbor hatreds I didn’t even know were there! ~ Alexander Portnoy

 

I vaguely remember the scandal over this book when it was published in 1969, which made me a bit wary of it now. But I enjoyed Roth’s later novel American Pastoral, so I decided to give Portnoy’s Complaint the benefit of the doubt.

 

Which turned out to be too beneficent.

 

I came very close to putting it in the DNF bin, but I kept hoping for something redeeming, or at least poignant, but no. Just a long, coarse, narrative of Portnoy complaining. 

 

At least it was well titled.

 

Jewish-American bachelor Alexander Portnoy describes to his analyst his upbringing, promising career, and excessive masturbation habits. Portnoy’s monologue describes the repression in mid-20th Century Jewish-American families, his struggle for identity in Christian, Anglo-Saxon America, and the inner turmoil caused by public respectability and private shame. I suppose these themes resonate with some, but they did very little for me.

 

I’m not in favor of banning books, but I am in favor of ignoring some. I think the scandal in 69 created notoriety for a book which is merely outrageous; some would say avant-garde. It’s a fine line in my opinion.

 

My rating 2 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned I liked American Pastoral, so I’m on the fence with Roth. I’ll read more, but with discretion. How do you feel about Portnoy’s Complaint? Philip Roth?

 

This was my SPIN book for TheClassics Club Spin #29.

 

Excerpts (all by Portnoy):

 

And then, of course my father is a man who has a certain amount of worrying to do each day, and sometimes he just has to forego listening to the conversations going on around him in order to fulfill his anxiety requirement.

 

Could I really have detested this childhood and resented these poor parents of mine to the same degree then as I seem to now…

 

The freak I am! Lover of no one and nothing! Unloved and unloving!

 

One rare bright spot…loved this:

Oh, and there is really nothing in life, nothing at all, that quite compares with that pleasure of rounding second base at a nice slow clip, because there’s just no hurry any more, because that ball you’ve hit has just gone sailing out of sight…