Philip Roth (1933–2018)

Easy listening; however, the novel that makes up most of this collection is so dated, with its main crisis concerning use of a diaphram (!) that despite how easy it all slides by, it ends up disappointing. Equally with the diaphram, the fault lies with the male protagonist, who acts idiotically and introduces unnecessary complications into the romantic relationship that drive the plot in a very artificial way. The 5 short stories (which aren't so short) are also easy to digest, but except for one or two, they also disappoint. Roth can write long conversations--such as the one in Goodbye Columbus with the traveling lightbulb salesman--that go on and on and are somewhat interesting in themselves, but end up just seeming like padding. I guess he's trying to be funny and show insight into human nature, and sometimes he does, but any rewards are offset by the triviality of much of this and all the wasted words. Even when he has an interesting subject, such as the intrusion of fundamentalist Judaism into a New York town where Jews and Gentiles have become modern and mostly reconciled, the story is marred by just going on and on. And on and on. And on and on. I assume Roth, who is obviously regarded as a great writer, must have written better stuff than this!… (more)

From the back cover:
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 für 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.

Really, this definition does describe the entirety of the book pretty clearly. The amount of sex, racism, and misogynism in this book is not to be undersold. However, one can easily see how at the time it was written that this book would have caught the attention of so many readers. Alexander Portnoy is absolutely obsessed with sex and seems to always be trying to find ways to find gratification. He seems pretty self-aware that his thoughts and actions are inappropriate but he either lacks true conscience or empathy. Throughout the book Alexander addresses comments to Spielvogel who is very clearly his psychoanalyst. I was equally offended by, angry at, and sympathetic to Portnoy. But when I reached the end of the book and realized that the entire story was a preparatory inner monologue prior to an appointment with Spielvogel, I actually laughed out loud. After all, some people do tend to have these internal conversations in the same way some people clean their houses before the cleaning crew arrives.… (more)