Philip Roth Books

The novel opens by reintroducing Nathan Zuckerman, the novelist who becomes obsessed with Seymour ‘Swede’ Levov. At a class reunion, Zuckerman hears of Swede’s recent death and remembers his youthful image of the man—a flawless athlete, tall, blond, and modest, the ideal American Jew who transcended...

From American Pastoral

The beginning of Swede’s story is steeped in postwar optimism. In Newark, he is celebrated as the local hero—a Jewish boy who seems more American than the Americans themselves. His athletic grace and wholesome demeanor make him unforgettable; he unites the immigrant working class and the suburban dr...

From American Pastoral

From the outset, I situate myself on the couch, talking endlessly while the analyst listens. The novel wastes no time establishing its theatrical intimacy: the reader is cast as witness, almost complicit in the act of exposure. My words flood outward, fast, irreverent, unable to be contained. What R...

From Portnoy’s Complaint

Ah, childhood — my original training ground for ambivalence. In the world of my mother, Sophie Portnoy, affection comes wrapped in anxiety, protection tangled with control. She’s the emblem of the immigrant’s willpower: vigilant, loving, smothering. My father, Jack, perpetually constipated, is a stu...

From Portnoy’s Complaint

Mickey Sabbath is a man bound as much by his art as by his appetites. Once a successful puppeteer, he was known for daring performances that blurred the boundary between play and obscenity. The puppets were his mouthpieces, mischievous extensions of his own anarchic spirit. Through them, he acted ou...

From Sabbath’s Theater

Sabbath’s last profound connection comes through Drenka Balich — a Croatian innkeeper, married, unrepentant, and as ungovernable as he is. Their love affair is a carnival of transgression, full of laughter and excess but also of ferocious tenderness. Drenka shares Sabbath’s contempt for propriety; h...

From Sabbath’s Theater