I love Philip Roth so much. I just got into him a few months ago and have been reading his novels one after another, I can't stop. On the other hand, I could see how some could find him obnoxious, perhaps even pretentious. Not me though. One of the greatest living authors? Sources point to yes.

roth is great, tho i truly dislike _portnoy's complaint_, repressed imbecile that i am.

segerandpriest wrote:roth is great, tho i truly dislike _portnoy's complaint_, repressed imbecile that i am.

Ditto. And I thought a book about wanking would keep my interest.

Anyway, for anyone interested, there's an interesting interview with the curmudgeon-in-chief of American letters in today's Guardian newspaper.

From today's Guardian

I ask him if he is religious. "I'm exactly the opposite of religious," he says. "I'm anti-religious. I find religious people hideous. I hate the religious lies. It's all a big lie. Are you religious yourself?" he asks.

"No," I say, "but I'm sure that life would be easier if I was."

"Oh," he says. "I don't think so. I have such a huge dislike. It's not a neurotic thing, but the miserable record of religion. I don't even want to talk about it, it's not interesting to talk about the sheep referred to as believers. When I write, I'm alone. It's filled with fear and loneliness and anxiety - and I never needed religion to save me."

As you can imagine, I like this guy a lot...

Gramsci wrote:From today's Guardian

I ask him if he is religious. "I'm exactly the opposite of religious," he says. "I'm anti-religious. I find religious people hideous. I hate the religious lies. It's all a big lie. Are you religious yourself?" he asks.

"No," I say, "but I'm sure that life would be easier if I was."

"Oh," he says. "I don't think so. I have such a huge dislike. It's not a neurotic thing, but the miserable record of religion. I don't even want to talk about it, it's not interesting to talk about the sheep referred to as believers. When I write, I'm alone. It's filled with fear and loneliness and anxiety - and I never needed religion to save me."

As you can imagine, I like this guy a lot...

I was actually thinking of you when I read this! You old cunt!

Rimbaud III wrote:
I was actually thinking of you when I read this! You old cunt!

Thanks, you Wally!

One of my fave living novelists, especially the Nathan Zuckerman books. Very, very not crap.

Knowledge imparted in Sabbath's Theater:

"Panties in my pocket at a funeral? That's hope!"

"In therapy...they're handed this version of their lives...The answer to every question is either Prozac or incest."

"You have extracted mental favors from me without my even knowing and against my will! I have been belittled by you! My dick has been belittled by you! Call the dean! My dick has been disempowered!"

"They have got a hundred times more proof of my criminality than could be required by even the most lenient of deans to drive me out of every decent antiphallic educational institution in America. Must I now ejaculate on CNN?"

"The cause of death was suicide, said Rosa Complicata, whom Mr. Sabbath sodomized moments before taking his life... According to Ms. Complicata, he had given her two fifty-dollar bills to perform perverse acts before his jumping out the window. 'But he no have hard prick,' said the heavyset spokesperson, in tears."

dabrasha wrote:"The cause of death was suicide, said Rosa Complicata, whom Mr. Sabbath sodomized moments before taking his life... According to Ms. Complicata, he had given her two fifty-dollar bills to perform perverse acts before his jumping out the window. 'But he no have hard prick,' said the heavyset spokesperson, in tears."

I feel bad for Rosa Complicata. Her creator should have cared more about her. She deserved a better fate than to be this ham-fisted punch line caricature.

Her one line (which, of course, is all about the tortured main character dude) could've been much better.

Roth, of course, is too obsessed with the tortured main character dude to give much attention to anything else.

This is second-tier, second-rate writing.

PS: Hi, dabrasha!

Angus Jung wrote:
This is second-tier, second-rate writing.

PS: Hi, dabrasha!

Oh, he's good for a mighty quip now and then, sure.

Roth is long winded at times, but no one has the stones to suggest edits.

No one save Michiko Kakutani, who Roth unleashes veiled fury on in this book.

His best female character, Drenka, is the high point of the book.

Mickey Sabbath is a bad bad man, and Roth is just fearless letting him riff and roll.

May we all be as bold in our 60's.

PS: Cheers AJ; who we trading Jason Kendall for?