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Portnoy's Complaint
 
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Portnoy's Complaint (Paperback)

by Philip Roth (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (3 Jan 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099399016
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099399018
  • Product Dimensions: 20 x 12.9 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 50,549 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #12 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > R > Roth, Philip

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Product Description

Guardian
'The most outrageously funny book about sex yet written'

Jewish Renaissance
`scabrous language and fantastic comic energy'


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Portnoy's Complaint
91% buy the item featured on this page:
Portnoy's Complaint 4.0 out of 5 stars (10)
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A striking and hilarious analysis of a sexually confused min, 27 Oct 2000
By A Customer
Alexander portnoy details his life to the reader with wit and brilliance every step of the way. From his diatribes against his overbearing Jewish parents and growing up in the closed-mideness of Newark; to details of his grimmest and most filthy sexual encounters and fantasies. Portnoy's Complaint is a fantastically funny book about one mans urge to fulfill himself against all odds that heave been put in place against him due to an Oedipus complex and a need to be on the moral highground. Anyone who has read Philip Roth before will enjpoy this book, anyone who hasn't will find this a good starting point.

My only criticism lies in the sometimes long-winded descriptions of various stages of his adolescence and life - while although these are often funny,; they give the book a sluggish quality it otherwise would not possess.

On the whole, however, a good read and very, very funny.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Even in 2007 this is a great book!!, 26 Oct 2007
By L. Caulfield "LPC81" (Birmingham, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
First, please do not be put off by the reviewer who states this book does not hold up in 2007. It does.
I read this book about 6 months ago and could not put it down. It's hysterically funny, it will make you cringe, and yes, even in 2007, it will shock you.
I've never written a review on Amazon before, but when I saw that someone had only given this book one star I had to give me opinion!! I'm not the world's biggest Phillip Roth fan by any stretch, but I read Portnoy's Complaint after I came accross it in a second hand book shop. It's clearly completely self-indulgent on Roth's part, but why not? In this case self-indulgence makes it all the more engaging and enjoyable to read. You will want to slap Portnoy accross the face, but you'll also want to see just exactly what idiotic and disgraceful things he'll do next.
Read this, you won't regret it!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars shockingly good, 8 Oct 2008
By Mr. David Mcnally "wild rover" (glasgow, scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I'm a complete newcomer to Philip Roth and picked this up on impulse in a second-hand bookshop (sorry amazon!). I loved it from start to finish and would recommend it to anyone, young, old, male or female, but with a few caveats. Firstly if you are coming new to it as I did, you might be surprised by the, shall we say frank-ness of the writing. I'm no prude but I was cringing as much as laughing during some of the more extreme passages. That a book written 40 years ago still has the power to shock is something - that its still worth reading and not just a passing fad is something else. Also, if you are at all familar with the tv show Curb Your Enthusiasm, it may be difficult not to read the whole book aloud in Larry David's voice inside your head; its very very Larry, and I suspect might have been a partial inspiration for his character on that show. Which is to say that it says a lot about being a modern Jewish male, with all the glories and hang-ups that (apparently) brings. Above all it manages to be enthralling without being remotely plot-driven and profound without being pretentious or heavy. Well done Mr Roth!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars RETURN READ
I first read Portnoy's Complaint 40 years ago and found it quite funny however it is one of those books that you need to revisit as you mature. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. M. A. Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars M.Williams, Wales, U.K. 4/2/2009
Having read some of Philip Roth's other books, and thoroughly enjoyed them, I ordered Portnoy's Complaint without actually knowing what it was about, and was I in for a surprize... Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars Is this Carnovsky?
Anybody contemplating reading Zuckerman Unbound (very good read) should perhaps read this first as I am assuming this is the "Carnovsky" book referred to. Read more
Published 7 months ago by S. Curtis

4.0 out of 5 stars Portnoy is a psychoanalyst's dream patient
Alexander Portnoy is thirty three, reluctantly Jewish and confessing his life to his psychoanalyst, from being a five-year-old mother's boy, through formative years as a gifted... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mick Read

3.0 out of 5 stars A young man's world
This was the second book by Roth that I have read, after Everyman, and by comparison I found it much less insightful to the human (male) condition. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Random Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny
I read this book in high school and found it very funny. It gave me an insight into teenage boys (and some of my later male friends) that I don't think I would have had... Read more
Published 20 months ago by ManderW

1.0 out of 5 stars Portnoy's Whinge!
Do not read this book unless you feel that you will be entertained by 274 pages of tedious, self-loathing and pointless pop-psychology. Read more
Published 23 months ago by R. J. Clarke

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