Sabbath's Theater

by Philip Roth | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0395739829 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Vasha of Ithaca, New York USA on 5/23/2010
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Vasha from Ithaca, New York USA on Sunday, May 23, 2010
The central character of the novel, Mickey Sabbath, is a sixty-four-year-old forced into retirement because of arthritis. Most of the narrative is a gleeful recounting of Mickey’s many infidelities, and even his grief at the death of his latest mistress is motivated more by anxieties about his failing powers of seduction than by any romantic longing. The unsuspecting reader should be aware that the theater of the novel’s title refers to Mickey’s pioneering puppet act from the 1960s that was performed by his middle finger — while his other fingers deftly set about disrobing female members of the audience.

Roth offers a series of vignettes that are occasionally knowingly calculated enough to test the reader’s sympathy to the limit. There is no profanity, it seems, that is too awful for Mickey Sabbath to contemplate: he plunders the underwear drawer of his best friend’s daughter in search of an aid to masturbation, he sneers at his wife’s attempts to combat alcoholism, and he urinates upon the grave of a former mistress.

Lechery, it seems, is Mickey’s vocation in life, and Roth is blithely indifferent to the agenda of political correctness. The novel is often darkly comic, and the carnivalesque energies that it unleashes do sometimes make Mickey uncomfortably engaging. For those in search of the vicarious thrills of cocking a snook at bourgeois morality, this novel will certainly not disappoint.
— Vance Adair in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Journal Entry 2 by 1001-library at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Friday, May 28, 2010

Thanks so much for your donation Vasha!

This book is now part of the 1001-library. If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the 1001-library bookshelf.

Journal Entry 3 by wingbookstogivewing at Springville, Tennessee USA on Tuesday, June 15, 2010
I am adopting this 1001-Library book for storage. It is available for check-out!

Journal Entry 4 by 1001-library at Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Tuesday, June 15, 2010


This book is now back on the 1001 library bookshelf and can be borrowed by PMing svoight:)

If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the library bookshelf.

Journal Entry 5 by wingbookstogivewing at Ithaca, New York USA on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (7/12/2011 UTC) at Ithaca, New York USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

moving on

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