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from Part II - Critical Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2021
This chapter traces the crtical reception of Roth's Portnoy’s Complaint, released to significant controversy. While many deemed the novel to be brilliant and hilarious, others found it offensive. Many readers were taken aback by its unabashed engagement with sex: protagonist Alex Portnoy speaks frankly about many aspects of his sexual life, particularly his propensity for masturbation. As is the case with many of Roth’s works, readers interpreted the protagonist to be almost wholly autobiographical. Moreover, many Jewish critics and rabbis, specifically, felt that the book’s material further revealed Roth to be a “self-hating Jew."Yet for many of the same reasons that it was criticized, Portnoy’s Complaint has also been hailed as one of Roth’s signature works, which exemplifies a coming into his unique voice and trademark sense of humor.
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