Philip Roth's Million-Dollar Supersexed -
Product About Jewish Lad Under Analysis
Philip Roth, of "Goodby, Colum- young man who is stretched out on presents an interesting study. One
bus" fame since he wrote that first the psychiatrist's couch as he tells review is especialy worth quoting.
book of his in 1959, is 35. The his story about himself, his parents, In Look magazine, Peter S. Pres-
"hero" in his newest work, "Port- his sister, the shikses he has rela- cott wrote:
noy's Complaint," is 33. He deals tions with, the Jewish girls he THE PROFANE COMES FIRST, of
because it is easier to lay one's
with the Jewish young man with an meets in Israel where he winds up course,
hand on, and because it is proper for
understanding of one that age, and in impotence.
man to wait and work for his salvation.
Complaint, by Philip Roth
his skill as a novelist, as a humor-
One could express abhorrence Portnoy's
House), is a good novel, but
ist ("Portnoy" provides quite a few over such a work and be called it (Random
is also about as profane as a novel
get. It is not profane because it is
laughs), as a master in delineating blind to realities and the contemp- can
sex or because it floats on a tide
sex, makes his psychiatric object a orary literary creations and needs. about
of scatological offal. Doubtless, its ran-
ambience will set the pornophiles
work of art.
Regardless: it must be admitted cid
to smacking their lips, but they will
by grinding their gums. What-
How else could Roth have gotten that Roth is a great writer. Even finish
else it is, Portnoy's Complaint is
if his novel were titled "mastur- ever erotic:
it contains too much sexual
$250,000 as the initial check in pay- bation" it still could emerge a great not
frustration, which is death to dirty
masturbation,
ment for "Portnoy" and as an ad- piece of English writing. But why books, and too much
which is unlikely to exercise the porno-
vance for what is assured as at does he have to make it so ob- phlliac imagination.
True profanity comes not from the
least a million-dollar-income from scene? Why the Jewish issue: why juices
of the body but from dryness
can't the Jewish writers who resort of the spirit;
it is a loud and inefficient
his new novel?
to the crisis at hand. By this
to sex orgy descriptions make it of response
definition,
Alexander Portnoy, the nar-
Random published this work, is a general nature rather than give rator of Roth's
novel, is an expert:
he
boosting it, is gathering encomia the impression that the psychia- repressed, frustrated and exploited,
exposes his wounds to the reader and
and
for it, has received assurances that tric analyses are right: that so shrieks his story of pain, hatred
presiding
despair. Nor is Roth, the
it is the very great work of the much stems from "mother-hate physician
in the Portnoy case, any
the
year, and now it will be interesting and father-hate?"
slouch at profanity himself: where
treatment calls for transfusions of love,
to know to what extent a genera- (Perhaps some day there will be Roth
offers exploding cigars; where
tion draws the line on oversexed a new era of fathers criticizing grafts of tenderness might have cured
Roth holds out the
and lascivious literature.
sons, mothers complaining about disfigurement,
Band-Aid of low comedy. Laughter
in these
But "Portnoy" really is not over- daughters, but we now still have heals—you've heard that—and
of rising medical costs, high-qual-
sexed: it is nothing but sex, the sex the prevalence of parent criticism days
ity heading materials are scarce. Alex's
is hopeless, anyway, so laugh at
acts and urges never end, the in the writings of young Jews who case
funny man who suffers so very
young lad in the story, Alexander predominate in the literary world). the
loudly
Portnoy, is so sick with his sex
• • •
Alex is afflicted by an acute case of
Jewish parents. His father is consti-
desires and cravings that he all but At any rate, in "Portnoy's Com- pated
clinging; his mother is fan-
exposes his sex organ for public plaint" the young lad who had atically and
self-righteous, a castrating mis-
tress of intimidating rhetoric. The two
view.
ignorance, bigotry and
begun
to
rebel
against
his
Jewish
combine
their
• • •
selfishness with the marvel-
background before his Bar. Mitzva, consuming
inhibiting qualities of kosher di-
Seldom, if ever, has a literary when he was already a masturba- ously
Alex that, from
to
convince
laws
work contained such lurid descrip- tor; who portrays a cranky consi- etary
his earliest days, he has been a heart-
criminal. At 33, Alex still believes
tions of masturbation and the pated father; whose mother's ac- less
He is Assistant Human Opportunity
agonies that go with it for the tions keep hounding him — such a it.
Commissioner for New York City and
nymphomaniac, but still he has
has fought
mother, who displayed her silk hose a no mate
fun. Since puberty, he
that battering
back with his penis,
Students Get On-the-Job while dressing in front of him, who ram
is
to freedom," but masturbation
wanted him to be healthy, to eat an unsatisfactory
affirmation of the
Training for Careers
and even when - he meets the girl
the proper food — such a Jewish self,
do any-
of his dreams, the girl would
NlW YORK (JTA) — Twenty- mother I
thing in bed, Alex is left strung out;
Living (as it were) from hand to
It's worth quoting the prefactory stilt
, seven undergraduates at Stern Col-
mouth, because there is no security,
not when the girt is as
lege for Women of Yeshiva Univ- note, also reproduced on the jacket even there;
and
illiterate as she is accommodating
ersity are taking part in a pilot of this million - dollar - producing when,
like so many of her kind, she
Ameri-
unseasonably
asks for consideration as
program organized by the
book, which describes Alex's going
a human being.
can Red Cross to provide on-the- to the psychiatrist (Spielvogel):
This, of course, raises the question
. job ,professional training for com-
"Portnoy's Complaint (port-noiz how
the book asks and does not answer:
does one become himself, a human
munity careers. The Stern College kam-plant) n. (after Alexander
being? At the very end, in a particu-
Civil Service Club is one of three Portnoy (1933- ). A disorder in larly
devastating and cynical joke, Roth
we have not learned how to
in New York City schools, the which strongly-felt ethical and al- suggests
ask the question. The Lamentations of
others being at Pace College and trustic impulses are perpetually A. Portnoy, who opposes duty to fun,
misery to Gentile bliss, mothers
Herbert H. Lehman College.
warring with extreme sexual Jewish
and their laws to sons and their sex-
Students are trained in agencies longings, often a perverse nature. ual perversions,
are excruciatingly fun-
But what sets this novel above all
by staff professionals for possible Spielvogel says: 'Acts of Exhibi- ny.
other comic novels about Jewish par-
phy-
the degree to which pain,
careers in occupational and
tionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto- ents is and
desperation curdle the
sical therapy, social work, public eroticism and oral coitus are plen- hatred
story. This frenzy of pain and hilarity
effective and well suited
relations and other fields. The pro- tiful; as a consequence of the is remarkably
Roth's purpose. But it is, in the
lim-
, gram also enables the students to patents's "m o r a lit y," however, to
long view, profane (and therefore
of life
work with elderly and other hancir neither fantasy nor act issues in iting) because the profane view
little hope of redemption
'capped persons. Many of the stu- genuine sexual gratification, but recognizes
from any source.
dents have been placed as part- rather in overriding feelngs of
Be it as it may: Philip Roth's
time volunteers by the Red Cross shame and the dread of retribution, "Portnoy"
is brilliant writing, all
in the Henry Street Settlement, particularly in the form of castra- sex, a masterpiece
in psychiatric
the Jewish Home and Hospital for tion? (Spielvogel, 0. "The Puzzled approaches to parent-son
relation-
the Aged, the Jewish Guild for the Penis,' Internationale Zeitschrift
Blind and Speedwell Services for fuer Psychoanalyses, Vol. XXIV p. ships, a classic on masturbation.
We'd
love
him
if
he
left
Jews
Children. A spokesman said that 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel
doesn't. He doesn't hate,
one of the goals of the project was that many of the symptoms can be alone: he linlcc
us too much with a
to give students first-band knowl- traced to the bonds obtaining in but he
negative aspect.
edge of such professional work as the mother-child relationship."
a possible factor In their career
There you have it: the admoni- Dear Reader: meet the million-
choices after graduation- He said tion about the mother-child rela- dollar-for-sex Phillip Roth who
ft was his impression that none of tionship; and there also is the re- drags his parents through the
the 27 students had enrolled for action to that constipated father— mud, who gives Jews a sex-infest-
• training in public relations.
what a lovely series of reminis- ed platform; who has written a
textbook on masturbation and sex-
cences!
We don't have enough
Mental Health Students
And when Alex gets through tell- ology.
we need more contempor-
ing Spielvogel about his needs, trouble:
Study Aged Procedures
ary
authors
who place emphasis on
urges,
masturbation,
shikses,
the
children's hatred for parents —
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Eight
after he leaves one because
to
Israel
flight
of
a
Jewish heritage they
Students in a new two-year course of the chief characters (tztatzkes),
in mental health education at the illiterate, The Money who reject.
Philadelphia Community College threatens, in Athens, to jump from
for the a hotel window if he leaves her, we
visit the Home and Hospital observe
Jewish Aged regularly to
have the epilogue: "Punch Line— Masada Defenders to Be
and participate in activities relat- So (said the doctor). Now we may Buried at Mt. of Olives
ing to the care of the aged. The perhaps to begin. Yes?"
college mental health course was Not enough said, Mr. Roth.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The re-
developed to provide middle level
mains of 27 defenders of Masada,
•••
mental health workers to staff the Even though Roth's friend Albert the Jewish mountain fortress held
growing number of mental health Goldman was allocated some seven out against Roman legions in the
facilities in Pennsylvania.
or more pages in Life magazine to year 70, will be given a heroes'
The eight students are assigned describe his friend Philip Roth and burial on the Mount of Olives,
in
the
agency,
a
to various areas
to describe "Portnoy's Complaint" overlooking the site of Solomon's
Federation of Jewish Agencies as looming "as a Wild Blue Shock- Temple, the ministry for religious
affiliate, where they work under er and the American novel of the affairs announced.
The remains were discovered six
sixties," and in spite of the Million-
dollar-royalties-record being set by years ago by Prof. Yigal Yadin,
the supervision of the department
bead. The areas include occupa-
tional therapy, social service, re-
search and physical medicine. The
the new novel, one wonders why so
much sex needs to be poured out,
students are being rotated through so
gruesomely.
the various areas and are being
such a work be trans-
given the opportunity to attend How can
to the screen? In what form
meetings and conferences to broad- ferred
it
possible
to quote from so much
.% en . their . understanding . of the is
profanity? The reaction to the book
Friday, February 21, 1969-11
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Hebrew University archaeologist.
An examination and investigation
by scholars in London reportedly
confirmed that the remains are
those of the defenders of Masada
who chose suicide rather than sur-
render to Roman hands.
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