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2nd out of 35 books
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8 voters
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Sabbath's Theater
by
Philip Roth
Sabbath's Theater is a comic creation of epic proportions, and Mickey Sabbath is its gargantuan hero. Once a scandalously inventive puppeteer, Sabbath at sixty-four is still defiantly antagonistic and exceedingly libidinous. But after the death of his long-time mistress—an erotic free spirit whose adulterous daring surpassed even his own—Sabbath embarks on a turbulent jour...more
Paperback, 451 pages
Published
August 6th 1996
by Vintage
(first published January 1st 1995)
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22nd out of 29 books
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17 voters
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After the death of his longtime mistress, disgraced former puppeteer Mickey Sabbath sinks deeper and deeper into a prison of depression...
First off, Sabbath's Theater won the National Book award in 1995. It's not surprising since it was superbly written. On the other hand, it's also dirtier than a stack of used Longarm's. Seriously. Every time I thought it couldn't get any dirtier, Sabbath did something like masturbate on his mistress's grave.
There really isn't much...more
First off, Sabbath's Theater won the National Book award in 1995. It's not surprising since it was superbly written. On the other hand, it's also dirtier than a stack of used Longarm's. Seriously. Every time I thought it couldn't get any dirtier, Sabbath did something like masturbate on his mistress's grave.
There really isn't much...more
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In my opinion, this is the finest work of American fiction in the last 25 years.
Mickey Sabbath goes further than any other of Roth's characters. Each time Roth comes to an intersection in this novel, each time he has to decide whether to stop, slow down or accelerate, Roth goes faster.
This novel is a work of genius, perhaps the only novel of Roth's - from one cover to another - about which that can be said.
The best novels are those that entertain on multiple ...more
Mickey Sabbath goes further than any other of Roth's characters. Each time Roth comes to an intersection in this novel, each time he has to decide whether to stop, slow down or accelerate, Roth goes faster.
This novel is a work of genius, perhaps the only novel of Roth's - from one cover to another - about which that can be said.
The best novels are those that entertain on multiple ...more
The number one complaint against anything that Philip Roth writes is his treatment of women. I would just like to say that Roth's men aren't exactly shining examples of human virtue. Is Roth a Man-sogynist? The truth is that Roth's characters can be grotesque and still garner readerly sympathy. I just want to put that one out there-I am not disputing that his books are not somewhat placed in a "male gaze" and that his textual treatment of women can be hard to take, but Roth is not Bret...more
I can respect other folks' positive reviews of SABBATH's THEATER. I'm normally a big Roth fan, too---I really got a lot out of AMERICAN PASTORAL, THE HUMAN STAIN, and THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA. SABBATH for me just didn't do the trick, however. Part of my issue with it, I think, is that Roth hasn't really worried about form or plot in ages---his novels unfold now as dramatic monologues, episodic and without any real drive. As a result, there's a distance between the reader and the action that can ...more
i can't deny myself a pleasure to compare this book with The Elementary Particles although I've read Houellebecq's book about 8 years ago and don't remember it that well.
On the outer level books have nothing in common. One is about old Jewish pervert, retired puppet theatre actor who is described with the most radical sexual anomalies. He mastrubates on the grave of his beloved lover to remember how they were recalling on her deathbed how they peed on each other at some waterfall or how th...more
On the outer level books have nothing in common. One is about old Jewish pervert, retired puppet theatre actor who is described with the most radical sexual anomalies. He mastrubates on the grave of his beloved lover to remember how they were recalling on her deathbed how they peed on each other at some waterfall or how th...more
An amazing, densely narrated novel. The expression of characters uninhibited (or mostly uninhibited) by conventional morality is fully realized in the characterizations of Drenka and Sabbath. Of course Sabbath is also haunted as he navigates memory lane. And the novel is just crammed with his life, which bursts out and propels the novel forward, practically in spite of the variety of narrative strategies that Roth uses. The scene at the graveyard where Barrett masturbates on Drenka’s grave while...more
E’ un miracolo, se non moriamo tutti per questo nostro capire sempre troppo tardi. Ma in effetti moriamo di quello, di quello soltanto.
Philip Roth è uno dei più grandi narratori americani, famoso soprattutto per il romanzo Lamento di Portnoy e Pastorale americana. Ho sempre desiderato leggere Pastorale americana, invece mi sono ritrovata fra le mani, grazie ad un prestito, questo Il teatro di Sabbath. Il protagonista è Morris (Mickey) Sabbath, un ex burattinaio dalle mani rese inservib...more
Philip Roth è uno dei più grandi narratori americani, famoso soprattutto per il romanzo Lamento di Portnoy e Pastorale americana. Ho sempre desiderato leggere Pastorale americana, invece mi sono ritrovata fra le mani, grazie ad un prestito, questo Il teatro di Sabbath. Il protagonista è Morris (Mickey) Sabbath, un ex burattinaio dalle mani rese inservib...more
This series of rancid descriptions of sexual depravity, each one topping the last, felt like a like literature's "Metal Machine Music." Is this actually inspired fiction or just open pornography? The critics supplying the book's endorsements so enthusiastically believe it's the former that it made me wonder if either the reading community suffers from a collective diagnosable sexual disorder or I needed to immediately subscribe to internet pornography to properly culturally develop. ...more
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Um dos títulos canónicos de Philip Roth, escritor que, em conjunto com Don DeLillo ou Hanif Kureishi (apenas à guisa de exemplo), pensa sobre os assuntos masculinos com um cérebro despudoradamente testosterónico. Uma boa premissa sobre os livros de Roth é o título do clássico álbum dos Big Black: "Songs About Fucking" - mas aqui, é claro, substituindo canções por livros. "Sabbath's Theatre" é sobre Mickey Sabbath, um velho titeteiro que tem as mãos torcidas pela artrite e que...more
One word of warning: Philip Roth's novel Sabbath Theater is NOT for everyone. Some people will not be able to make it past the first 20 pages before they set the book down, go take a cold shower, and watch some Disney classic. Others who make it past the first 20 pages, may drop off after 70 pages. This novel reminds me of seeing people go to a cinema, watch the first half hour of a movie, then see them sneak out before halfway.
Why? Because Mickey Sabbath -- the novel's libidinous an...more
Why? Because Mickey Sabbath -- the novel's libidinous an...more
I don't know what it says about Philip Roth that he decided to vomit this excruciating epic of bile-driven self-loathing into print; nor do I want to think about what it says about me that, after an uncertain start where I stopped entirely for a few weeks after the first 150 odd pages, I enjoyed it so much, speeding through the last 300 pages at a canter.
Either way, this sordid tale of a disgraced Puppeteer and his seemingly taboo-less sexual adventures and cravings is an extraordinary wo...more
Either way, this sordid tale of a disgraced Puppeteer and his seemingly taboo-less sexual adventures and cravings is an extraordinary wo...more
Progress report (15% read): Whenever I read Philip Roth, I always think, "Sex is far, far more important to this man than it is to most people." Over the years his writing about it has matured, but it is just so darn central to his thinking, and this book appears to be no exception. I'm plowing forward nonetheless.
Update (30% report): I give up, I give up, I give up. This may be Roth's best work, but I just can't do it. I'll sound like a prude, but the focus on sex is t...more
Update (30% report): I give up, I give up, I give up. This may be Roth's best work, but I just can't do it. I'll sound like a prude, but the focus on sex is t...more
A bittersweet story of a sex-obsessed, aging, self-identified-as-failure puppeteer. He spends most of the book contemplating how to kill himself, seeing very little in his life worth living for. But then his indomitable spirit takes over to, for instance, try to fuck a massively overweight maid in the house of a friend he is staying with.
More seriously though, there are some beautiful passages of Sabbath's longing for his brother, shot down in the Pacific in WWII. Also great is wh...more
More seriously though, there are some beautiful passages of Sabbath's longing for his brother, shot down in the Pacific in WWII. Also great is wh...more
every time i pull a philip roth book off of the shelf at the store, i always end up putting it back and deciding to wait for one that's not about the misadventures of some lecherous old man. i finally figured out that that's what all of them are about and picked this one up anyway. it's a testament to roth's writing that in a book filled with so many foul, off the wall man and woman moments, what really stands out is the character of mickey sabbath and his struggle to find a reason to live when ...more
When I an entrenched in a Philip Roth book, I have simple been lured out of all objectivity and brought into an almost completely visceral state. This becomes most obvious when I tell others about the book I'm currently reading and find myself offering description that I might be otherwise reluctant to offer in even impolite company, for Roth touches on the absolute depths of depravity. While I wouldn't go anywhere as far as one of the blurbs on this book about Mickey Sabbath being a represent...more
Philip Roth es muy inteligente, y escribe muy bien. De eso no hay duda y por eso le he puesto un 4 al libro.
Mickey Sabbath... ¿quién es o qué es Mickey Sabath?, ¿un mito del anarco-liberalismo que viene a reventar todo aquello que huele a políticamente correcto? ¿Una escisión del Lobo estepario vagando por los inhóspitos parajes del individualismo crónico? Si tuviera que buscar una imagen que resumiera el transcurrir de este libro sería la de una comida que viene de ser engullida y q...more
Mickey Sabbath... ¿quién es o qué es Mickey Sabath?, ¿un mito del anarco-liberalismo que viene a reventar todo aquello que huele a políticamente correcto? ¿Una escisión del Lobo estepario vagando por los inhóspitos parajes del individualismo crónico? Si tuviera que buscar una imagen que resumiera el transcurrir de este libro sería la de una comida que viene de ser engullida y q...more
Respeck, Mr. Roth! Respeck! You a fine writer.
I was starting to think that maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy. Disgusted with the obnoxiousness of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, unmoved by A Clockwork Orange, too squeamish to appreciate The Wasp Factory. What now? Go reread Jane Austen?
A book can be about a supreme bastard, and it can have a nonstop torrent of kinky sex and other assortment of unconventional and/or immoral conduct and lifestyle that various people may...more
I was starting to think that maybe I’m just getting old and grumpy. Disgusted with the obnoxiousness of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, unmoved by A Clockwork Orange, too squeamish to appreciate The Wasp Factory. What now? Go reread Jane Austen?
A book can be about a supreme bastard, and it can have a nonstop torrent of kinky sex and other assortment of unconventional and/or immoral conduct and lifestyle that various people may...more
Although I had high expectations for this piece, I didn't enjoy it! Don't get me wrong - Roth is an excellent writer, but all the lewd prose had me balking at the end of each page. Briefly, the book tells the story of Mickey Sabbath, a 64 year old puppeteer coming to terms with his aging body and adulterous past. There are some heart rending pieces, but Roth annihilates them with his endless coarse commentary. The main character is supposedly modelled on American Jewish painter R.B. Kitaj.
...more
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After reading American Pastoral I looked forward to my next Philip Roth book. This one seemed similarly acclaimed so I chose it. I would say I'm disappointed. Much of the book I'd say is simply pornography. Never before have I read the word "cunt" in such density. The story centers on the life of a sex-crazed former puppeteer named Sabbath and how his obsessions with certain women and the early WWII death of his brother shape his crazy actions. There were indeed moments I found g...more
Mickey Sabbath is perhaps Philip Roth’s greatest literary invention. Forget Zuckerman Unbound, this is Roth unbound as Sabbath is without inhibitions and completely detached from any societal norms. Sabbath is simply a 64 year adolescent with an oversized libido who does what he wants without regard for others and that leads him on a path of self-destruction without actually being able to self-destruct.
Sabbath is despicable, yet his continued self-imposed downward spiral is cringingl...more
Sabbath is despicable, yet his continued self-imposed downward spiral is cringingl...more
Like many of his peers, Roth has often equated artistic and sexual prowess but his writing has shown a suspicion in equating the two (for all of Zuckerman’s supposed prowess, impotence may be his defining trait) but “Sabbath’s Theater” may come closest to breaking down the barrier. It is also the novel that best takes advantage of the changing norms of sexual politics. Gone is Roth’s ability to shock; instead, it is replaced by despair at the inhibitions of creativity, the inability of society t...more
Wow. This book reminded me of the meaning of the term "anal-retentive," a figure of speech which always puzzled me by its frequent, casual use. Didn't anyone else see the winking anus at the center of the psychological label? I had a passing acquaintance with Freudian stages and their names, but I couldn't link the "anal-retentive" title clearly with the uptight personality to which it's commonly assigned.
As I now understand it, the anal type of person has never...more
As I now understand it, the anal type of person has never...more
Eh? Well, the story of a bitter 60ish year old man who has spent his life as a "puppeteer" obsessed with sex. His lover of many years dies suddenly and he is plunged into a space where he needs to determine if he should continue living and, if so, to what end.
The book is well-written and the story could be good, but it is filled with literally scores and scores of pages with very, very graphically detailed descriptions of his sexual escapades and after a while that starts t...more
The book is well-written and the story could be good, but it is filled with literally scores and scores of pages with very, very graphically detailed descriptions of his sexual escapades and after a while that starts t...more
I have read Philip Roth before and have enjoyed his work. This particular book is ulnlreadable and unworthy in my estimation.
I bought the book on sale and obviously paid too much for it in my estimation.
I did not enjoy the main character and did not enjoy the plot, what there was of it that I could find.
I am happy that others seemed to enjoy the book much better than did I knowing what it takes to write a book.
Sorry, but I will be careful about ...more
I bought the book on sale and obviously paid too much for it in my estimation.
I did not enjoy the main character and did not enjoy the plot, what there was of it that I could find.
I am happy that others seemed to enjoy the book much better than did I knowing what it takes to write a book.
Sorry, but I will be careful about ...more
"Nothing was merely itself any longer; it all reminded him of something long gone or of everything that was going" (17).
"Life was as unthinkable for Sabbath without the successful innkeeper's promiscuous wife as it was for her without the remorseless puppeteer" (19).
"...Sabbath was reassured that not even a simple guy like Gus was free of the human need to find a strand of significance that will hold together everything that isn't on TV" (38).
"...more
"Life was as unthinkable for Sabbath without the successful innkeeper's promiscuous wife as it was for her without the remorseless puppeteer" (19).
"...Sabbath was reassured that not even a simple guy like Gus was free of the human need to find a strand of significance that will hold together everything that isn't on TV" (38).
"...more
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Thoroughly un-humbled by The Humbling, I wanted to experience some vintage Roth and settled on this nervous breakdown of a novel, this assault on the beaches of decency. While I was reading some parts for the third or fourth time (this may be Roth's most re-readable work), I'd never actually read this long and dense, staunchly non-linear book through to the end. My admiration for it has only gone up. Shakespearean set pieces, Joycean streams of thought, even sex-tape transcriptions--Roth joins t...more
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Tough to know just what to make of this one. Themes, plot contours, even whole story elements are reminiscent of The Human Stain (the latter written in 2000, but set in the mid-nineties, when this book was written and set). However, it's a farce to that book's tragedy. Instead of tracing a man's downfall at the hands of a judgmental society in which racism and political correctness are two sides of the same poison coin--and in which writing itself stands in an awkward and uncertain relation to t...more
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Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained early literary fame with the 1959 collection Goodbye, Columbus (winner of 1960's National Book Award), cemented it with his 1969 bestseller Portnoy's Complaint, and has continued to write critically-acclaimed works, many of which feature his fictional alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman. The Zuckerman novels began with The Ghost Writer in 1979, and inc...more
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“Oh Mickey, it was wonderful, it was fun - the whole kitten and kaboozle. It was like living. And to be denied that whole part would be a great loss. You gave it to me. You gave me a double life. I couldn't have endured with just one."
I'm proud of you and your double life."
All I regret", she said, crying again, crying with him, the two of them in tears..."is that we couldn't sleep together too many nights. To commingle with you. Commingle?"
Why not."
I wish tonight you could spend the night."
I do, too. But I'll be here tomorrow night."
I meant it up at the Grotto. I didn't want to fuck any more men even without the cancer. I wouldn't do that even if I was alive."
You are alive. It is here and now. It's tonight. You're alive."
I wouldn't do it. You're the one I always loved fucking. But I don't regret that I have fucked many. It would have been a great loss to have had otherwise. Some of them, they were sort of wasted times. You must have that, too. Haven't you? With women you didn't enjoy?"
Yes."
Yes, I had experiences where the men would just want to fuck you whether they cared about you or not. That was always harder for me. I give my heart, I give my self, in my fucking."
You do indeed."
And then, after just a little drifting, she fell asleep and so he went home - "I'm leaving now" - and within two hours she threw a clot and was dead.
So those were her last words, in English anyway. I give my heart, I give my self, in my fucking. Hard to top that.
To commingle with you, Drenka, to commingle with you now.”
—
8 people liked it
I'm proud of you and your double life."
All I regret", she said, crying again, crying with him, the two of them in tears..."is that we couldn't sleep together too many nights. To commingle with you. Commingle?"
Why not."
I wish tonight you could spend the night."
I do, too. But I'll be here tomorrow night."
I meant it up at the Grotto. I didn't want to fuck any more men even without the cancer. I wouldn't do that even if I was alive."
You are alive. It is here and now. It's tonight. You're alive."
I wouldn't do it. You're the one I always loved fucking. But I don't regret that I have fucked many. It would have been a great loss to have had otherwise. Some of them, they were sort of wasted times. You must have that, too. Haven't you? With women you didn't enjoy?"
Yes."
Yes, I had experiences where the men would just want to fuck you whether they cared about you or not. That was always harder for me. I give my heart, I give my self, in my fucking."
You do indeed."
And then, after just a little drifting, she fell asleep and so he went home - "I'm leaving now" - and within two hours she threw a clot and was dead.
So those were her last words, in English anyway. I give my heart, I give my self, in my fucking. Hard to top that.
To commingle with you, Drenka, to commingle with you now.”
“Either foreswear fucking others or the affair is over.”
—
7 people liked it
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