Portnoy's Complaint

Author: Philip Roth

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 26.99 AUD
  • : 9780099399018
  • : Random House UK
  • : Random House UK
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  • : 0.192
  • : 01 April 1995
  • : 199mm X 132mm X 19mm
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  • : 22.99
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Philip Roth
  • : Paperback
  • : 510
  • : 288
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Barcode 9780099399018
9780099399018

Description

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 für 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.

Promotion info

'The most outrageously funny book about sex yet written' Guardian 20040702