The groundbreaking novel that propelled its author to literary stardom: told in a continuous monologue from patient to psychoanalyst, Philip Roth's masterpiece draws us into the turbulent mind of one lust-ridden young Jewish bachelor named Alexander Portnoy.

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 f r 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.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 09/20/1994
ISBN: 9780679756453
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.80d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/26/1994
Newsweek 08/11/2008 pg. 12
Entertainment Weekly 07/05/2013 pg. 100
New York Times Book Review 03/16/2014 pg. 14