Scan barcode
kylegarvey's review
4.0
Philip Roth's Novels: 1967-1972 is a great collection, both because the content itself is often great and because the respect and admiration required to put it together shines through on every page. You have to be a damn good writer to get your work anthologized like this, and Roth doesn't disappoint.
When She Was Good, the first novel, is probably the most difficult of the four. In a dense and meandering story, Roth shows us the complicated lives of mid-20th-century suburban America. Or rather, one complicated life in mid-20th-century America, which spins out of control and wrecks all the other lives. The morality play is fascinating at times, but altogether the novel is wearisome.
The second is Portnoy's Complaint, arguably Roth's most popular novel. The honesty and sheer audacity of it all is quite impressive, but I expected more genuine laughter, and not the occasional guilty, uncomfortable chuckle that comes from ridiculing old Jewish people and whorish ex-girlfriends.
Our Gang, the third, is a blisteringly funny satire of Nixon's political career. Roth treats the goofy and absurd comedy of his fake president and motley crew of idiots and evildoers like it's actual serious dramatic business, and for that I'm thankful. But where that earnestness and enthusiasm might help a comedic essay maintain a level of wisdom, it's a little overwhelming in a novella-length piece like this.
The Breast, the final novel, is a masterpiece. It has the best qualities of each of three preceeding it: the bold and complex prose of When She Was Good, the sexual candor of Portnoy, and the smart comedy of Our Gang. But where When She Was Good gets trapped in its own depth and complications, The Breast skates along on top and avoids all those pitfalls. Where Portnoy's Complaint was as much droning anger and ugly yelling as actual wit or fun, The Breast skips right to the end, delivering the clever and heartbreakingly real moments of the American male's sex life without all the prattling and bluster. Where Our Gang sometimes takes its humor a little too seriously, it's The Breast that takes its seriousness humorously, creating an irresistable and sprightly mood.
When She Was Good, the first novel, is probably the most difficult of the four. In a dense and meandering story, Roth shows us the complicated lives of mid-20th-century suburban America. Or rather, one complicated life in mid-20th-century America, which spins out of control and wrecks all the other lives. The morality play is fascinating at times, but altogether the novel is wearisome.
The second is Portnoy's Complaint, arguably Roth's most popular novel. The honesty and sheer audacity of it all is quite impressive, but I expected more genuine laughter, and not the occasional guilty, uncomfortable chuckle that comes from ridiculing old Jewish people and whorish ex-girlfriends.
Our Gang, the third, is a blisteringly funny satire of Nixon's political career. Roth treats the goofy and absurd comedy of his fake president and motley crew of idiots and evildoers like it's actual serious dramatic business, and for that I'm thankful. But where that earnestness and enthusiasm might help a comedic essay maintain a level of wisdom, it's a little overwhelming in a novella-length piece like this.
The Breast, the final novel, is a masterpiece. It has the best qualities of each of three preceeding it: the bold and complex prose of When She Was Good, the sexual candor of Portnoy, and the smart comedy of Our Gang. But where When She Was Good gets trapped in its own depth and complications, The Breast skates along on top and avoids all those pitfalls. Where Portnoy's Complaint was as much droning anger and ugly yelling as actual wit or fun, The Breast skips right to the end, delivering the clever and heartbreakingly real moments of the American male's sex life without all the prattling and bluster. Where Our Gang sometimes takes its humor a little too seriously, it's The Breast that takes its seriousness humorously, creating an irresistable and sprightly mood.
jeeleongkoh's review against another edition
4.0
A colleague said condescendingly that Roth's humor is adolescent. Sure it is, but which of us have grown out of our adolescence so completely that we do not recognize its old growth in our selves? "Portnoy's Complaint" is superb in in its inventive humor. The anti-Nixon satire of "Our Gang" I find rather tiresome. The Kafkaesque "The Breast" is unexpectedly moving.
More...