Portnoy’s Complaint

Price: $16.95 - $15.23
(as of Oct 13, 2025 17:38:28 UTC – Details)


The groundbreaking novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral that originally propelled its author to literary stardom: told in a continuous monologue from patient to psychoanalyst, this masterpiece draws us into the turbulent mind of one lust-ridden young Jewish bachelor named Alexander Portnoy.
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
“Deliciously funny . . . absurd and exuberant, wild and uproarious . . . a brilliantly vivid reading experience”—The New York Times Book Review
“Touching as well as hilariously lewd . . . Roth is vibrantly talented”—New York Review of Books
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.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 20, 1994
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 289 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679756450
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679756453
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.15 x 0.61 x 7.95 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #75,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #149 in Jewish Literature & Fiction #627 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction #2,626 in Literary Fiction (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 3,149 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });