Promiscuous
"Portnoy's Complaint" and Our Doomed Pursuit of Happiness
Published on 19. April 2012
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-300-15190-9 (ISBN)
Description
A spirited biography of Philip Roth's notorious novel, from the outrage it sparked to its impact on Roth to its legacy some forty years later
The publication of Portnoy's Complaint in 1969 provoked instant, powerful reactions. It blasted Philip Roth into international fame, subjected him to unrelenting personal scrutiny and conjecture, and shocked legions of readers-some delighted, others appalled. Portnoy and other main characters became instant archetypes, and Roth himself became a touchstone for conflicting attitudes toward sexual liberation, Jewish power, political correctness, Freudian language, and bourgeois disgust. What about this book inspired Richard Lacayo of Time to describe it as "a literary instance of shock and awe," and the Modern Library to list it among the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century?
Bernard Avishai offers a witty exploration of Roth's satiric masterpiece, based on the prolific novelist's own writings, teaching notes, and personal interviews. In addition to discussing the book's timing, rhetorical gambit, and sheer virtuousity, Avishai includes a chapter on the Jewish community's outrage over the book and how Roth survived it, and another on the author's scorching treatment of psychoanalysis. Avishai shows that Roth's irreverent novel left us questioning who, or what, was the object of the satire. Hilariously, it proved the serious ways we construct fictions about ourselves and others.
The publication of Portnoy's Complaint in 1969 provoked instant, powerful reactions. It blasted Philip Roth into international fame, subjected him to unrelenting personal scrutiny and conjecture, and shocked legions of readers-some delighted, others appalled. Portnoy and other main characters became instant archetypes, and Roth himself became a touchstone for conflicting attitudes toward sexual liberation, Jewish power, political correctness, Freudian language, and bourgeois disgust. What about this book inspired Richard Lacayo of Time to describe it as "a literary instance of shock and awe," and the Modern Library to list it among the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century?
Bernard Avishai offers a witty exploration of Roth's satiric masterpiece, based on the prolific novelist's own writings, teaching notes, and personal interviews. In addition to discussing the book's timing, rhetorical gambit, and sheer virtuousity, Avishai includes a chapter on the Jewish community's outrage over the book and how Roth survived it, and another on the author's scorching treatment of psychoanalysis. Avishai shows that Roth's irreverent novel left us questioning who, or what, was the object of the satire. Hilariously, it proved the serious ways we construct fictions about ourselves and others.
Reviews / Votes
"Avishai draws on existing scholarship to recount the 'wild blue shocker' that made Portnoy's Complaint the talk of its time, but from Roth's notebooks and Roth's friendship he adds insight to what keeps Portnoy outselling Gatsby and Godfather to this day."- Alan Cooper, Jewish Book World -- Alan Cooper * Jewish Book World * "An engaging and erudite reexamination of Portnoy's Complaint. . . . This fine and flawed novel does, indeed, merit another look even though and maybe because, as Avishai reminds us, what seemed daring to a twenty-something in 1969 may well seem touching when he is 60."- Glenn C. Altschuler, Jerusalem Post -- Glenn C. Altschuler * Jerusalem Post * "Great poets require great audiences: Whitman's dictum is brought to life in this book, where a truly great writer is matched to a highly astute reader. Philip Roth's transcendent importance is well established, but never has it been more cogently appreciated than by Bernard Avishai, who makes Roth's early masterpiece come fully to life again. Through Avishai's eyes, Roth's genius shines. Required reading all around."-James Carroll, author of Jerusalem, Jerusalem -- James Carroll "An affectionate, attentive, rumbustious meditation on Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, which also provides a robust, opinionated history of twentieth-century American Jewishness, sexual politics, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, skepticism and joking."-Hermione Lee, President, Wolfson College, Oxford University, Author of Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton -- Hermione Lee "Bernard Avishai has written a spirited, loving, richly insightful appreciation of Portnoy's Complaint as cultural phenomenon, generational totem, instinctual liberation, and, above all, stupendous work of art. A marvelous book for anyone who wishes to relive and to understand the thrill, scandal and triumph of Roth's comic masterpiece."-Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern -- Stephen Greenblatt "There are only two people who could have written this book: Philip Roth and Bernard Avishai. In fact, Avishai's deep emersion into the literary and cultural phenomenon that is Portnoy's Complaint is nearly as astute, bold, funny, perceptive, and wise as the celebrated novel itself."-Reza Aslan, Author of No god but God and Beyond Fundamentalism -- Reza Aslan "I was there. I read Portnoy-eagerly, with both hands!-the week it came out. And let me tell you, Avishai nails it. He explains it, re-explains it, plumbs the depths and jokes and gives backstories I was too ignorant and giddy to notice. And not just that: Promiscuous kept the smile on my face from start to finish."-Hendrik Hertzberg, Senior Editor, The New Yorker -- Hendrik Hertzberg "This is the best thing on Roth yet written. Avishai's breezy, intimate style is propelled by considerable scholarship, not only locating this breakout novel in Roth's life and work, but building a launching pad for Avishai's own dazzling cultural, intellectual, religious, and psychoanalytical explorations. Promiscuous proves Roth to be our boldest, best, and brightest fiction writer. So now perhaps the Nobel Prize Committee may begin. Yes?"-Robert Brustein, Founder, American Reporatory Theater -- Robert Brustein "The brilliance and wit of Philip Roth's novel, Portnoy's Complaint, a book that transformed modern Jewish identity, are matched by the dazzling insights of Bernard Avishai, one of the most engaged, and smartest, Jewish writers around."-Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College, author of The Aryan Jesus -- Susannah Heschel "A spirited engagement with the 1969 breakthrough novel that brought Philip Roth both renown and notoriety. . . . Avishai ventures far and wide over literary, philosophical and other cultural touchstones, providing a context for Roth's novel that encompasses James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Jackson Pollock, and Judd Apatow. Avishai proves both an informed and engaging guide to the novel and its legacy."-Kirkus Reviews * Kirkus Reviews * "How can one make a text so notorious, so unrelentingly charged, even more unique than it already is? It is to Avishai's great credit that, in many respects, he lives up to this task, not least because his prose teems with unbounded passion. He offers keen insight into a novel that one would think has exhausted further possible excavation from critics and readers alike."-Sam Kerbel, Tablet -- Sam Kerbel * Tablet * "Avishai draws on existing scholarship to recount the "wild blue shocker" that made Portnoy's Complaint the talk of its time, but from Roth's notebooks and Roth's friendship he adds insight to what keeps Portnoy outselling Gatsby and Godfather to this day."- Alan Cooper, Jewish Book World -- Alan Cooper * Jewish World * "Avishai examines Roth's masterpiece, including the reaction at the time of publication and over the succeeding 40 years, drawing on interviews with Roth as well as the novelist's writing and teaching notes, and interviews with writers, friends and the therapist who inspired the character of the psychoanalyst Dr. Spielvogel."- Toronto Globe and Mail * Toronto Globe and Mail * "A very serious and very funny book about a very serious and very funny book."- Jerome Chanes, The Forward -- Jerome Chanes * The Forward * "Avishai (whose intellect and wit well serve his friend Roth) is a perceptive literary and historic guide to the Portnoy phenomenon and the passionate response the novel engendered. . . . Erudite yet playful. . . . Highly recommended."- Choice * Choice * "[A] hectic but always informative tour . . . [that] resonantly illustrates what Portnoy-indeed, what Roth's entire oeuvre-represents both aesthetically and ethically: the necessity of heeding and cultivating the 'voice that can't mock others without mocking itself.'"-James D. Bloom, Philip Roth Studies -- James D. Bloom * Phillip Roth Studies *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-15190-9 (9780300151909)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2012
1st Edition
Yale University Press
€39.95
Available for download
Person
Bernard Avishai is adjunct professor of business at Hebrew University and author of three books, most recently, The Hebrew Republic, and dozens of articles for The New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Harper's, Harvard Business Review, and other publications. He divides his time between Jerusalem and Wilmot, NH.