889. Sabbath's Theater

Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth
1995
Around 450 pages

Philip Roth was a piece of work, and sounds like an overall unpleasant fellow. And for the sake of my sanity, I've learned to separate the art from the artist, but this nastiness permeates his novels, his themes, and his philosophies. It's not a world you want to stay in for very long.

Mickey Sabbath is an out of work puppeteer, and because he is a Roth protagonist, he does not have a healthy relationship with sexuality. The women in his life are the puppets, get it? 

How many mother obsessed, female hating men do we have to dissect on this blog? Roth is a talented writer, so his prose is always high quality, but I find the stories he tells unbearable (with one exception that we haven't reached yet). 

Another ugly story that you have to shake off after you read. We will definitely never run low on those.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Won the 1995 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.

UP NEXT: The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie