Il teatro di Sabbath

Yes, Mickey Sabbath is a pretty revolting person. And yes, this book goes right to the edge in sexual perversion (some would say over the edge). But. But. But, isn't Mickey's displaced mourning for his mother, his brother, his first wife and his longtime lover and last true love - isn't he just an e Leggi tutto

Un roman formidabil, de un umor total. Morris (Mickey) Sabbath a fost un artist păpușar. Ceea ce a realizat s-ar încadra, firește, în ceea ce numim azi, street art. A urmat studii de specialitate la Roma, a călătorit pe mări și oceane și, într-un sfîrșit, a poposit la New York, unde a pus bazele unu Leggi tutto

Nerves of steel are required for this 450pp assault on decency, indecency and all things neither decent nor indecent, but which probably involve sexagenarians masturbating in a teenage girl’s knicker drawer. Mickey Sabbath is a monster with an unstoppable capacity for sex, lechery and outright moles Leggi tutto

"My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking for others!"—Marquis de Sade Reading Roth’s 1995 National Book Award-winning novel is not easy. At a little more than a year anniversary from his 2018 death, I took Leggi tutto

I've always just assumed Philip Roth was one of those irrelevant, presumably-sexist 20th-century white men I'd never have to bother with. Turns out, Philip Roth is all those things—and also a fucking genius. This book is so fucked up on so many levels. It is also a virtuoso performance, the work of Leggi tutto

Okay, now I get it. Now I get the whole Philip Roth thing—book prize judges quitting in protest over him, the sheer volume of those praising and condemning him, even what I’ve called elsewhere “absurd”—the suggestion that Roth is a self-hating Jew. (I still think this labeling applied to anyone is a Leggi tutto

I'm sad tonight - I just checked and I've run out of one-star-rated books to review. I've had my fun with all the really dreadful barrel-scrapings I've read over the years, and now I have to move into the two-star category. Which isn't half as amusing. Because now I have to be all wisely judging wel Leggi tutto

Ο κυνισμός, η μισανθρωπία και ο πεσιμισμός δεν συνιστά Τέχνη καθ’ εαυτήν, εφόσον δεν συνάδει με τη συνεπή κατανόηση του υπαρξιακού άχθους, του άλγους που συνεπιφέρει το πέρασμα του χρόνου, της ηδονής ως αντιπάλου δέους του θανάτου. Ο ήρωας του Ροθ είναι χυδαίος, υβριστής, παρεκκλίνων και ταυτόχρονα Leggi tutto