Portnoy's Complaint

by Philip Roth

The driver’s name is all X’s and Y’s—if my father is right, these Polish people are direct descendants from the ox!”

Your blood flows in cubes! I’m surprised you don’t clink when you walk!

each reading augurs tribulations yet to be visited upon my ass.

You have a system inherently exploitive and unjust, inherently cruel and inhumane, heedless of human values, and your job is to make such a system appear legitimate and moral by acting as though justice, as though human rights and human dignity could actually exist in that society—when obviously no such thing is possible.