Anybody here read Portnoy's Complaint?

[LeighAnn]

Is that the most bigoted and politically incorrect book ever written? Is it funny or should it be roundly renounced?

Just wondering, 'cause I've never been able to talk to anybody about this book. I wasn't around when it came out, but everybody in my parents' generation remembers it, but all they remember is "that one part" (similar to the Warm Apple Pie scene in American Pie, except it was the liver that ended up on the Portnoy's dinner table). That's the only thing anyone seems to remember about that book.

Also, did anyone see the movie? They did a movie version in the early 70s with Richard Benjamin, but I keep wondering how they could have done that without the movie being rated X at that time (what we call NC-17 today).

Peace!

[SarahB]

1. In 1988 maybe.

Went through a series of funky novels then. Portnoy's Complaint, Naked Lunch, Metamorphosis. They all sort of blend together in this bug/typewriter/sex weirdness thing.

[LeighAnn]

7. Metamorphosis

Looks like a lot of fun

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/metamorphosis/

[RagingInMiami]

2. I loved that book

You should also check out "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, the book that inspired me to move to Europe ten years ago.

[LeighAnn]

4. Heard a lot of good things about that book

I'll have to check it out!

[Carson]

3. I read it many years ago, and honestly cannot remember

if I really enjoyed it. I still have the copy; I may have to read it again.

And, no, I've not seen the movie.

[LeighAnn]

5. I'll try not to feel guilty about thinking it was funny

I read it more than a couple of times, but now my conscience is getting starting to nag me about it.

[RagingInMiami]

8. There were some funny scenes in that book

[Doctor Panacea]

6. I read it

I read it when it came out about 35 years ago. It was a big shocker back then. I didn't think it was so great, actually, though it had some really funny parts. The liver episode was just shockingly gross. Definitely not the funniest part, in my opinion. The frying jizz on the lightbulb was better, I thought, and the stuff with the girlfriend named "the Monkey." I can't remember much about it after all these years.

[LeighAnn]

10. Yeah

Seems like pretty hard-core stuff for back then. I'm just concerned about the racial issues. Portnoy was a civil rights attorney, if I'm remembering it right, and I think he genuinely wanted to champion for the rights of blacks and hispanics, but he's also outrageously condascending and unwittingly bigoted. Plus, he's Jewish, and he comes down pretty hard on his own people, too, as well as the goyim.
Really funny, but I can't imagine a lot of people reading it and not being totally offended.

Cheers!

[kodi]

9. i have never eaten liver since

.

[JitterbugPerfume]

12. I read it a long time ago

it was a real shocker back then but I really do not remember anthing about it

could be old -timers disease <SNArf>

[NightTrain]

11. I read it in the early '90s and laughed my ass off!

Easily one of the funniest books ever written, and that includes Bill O'Reilly's "Those Who Trespass." :evilgrin:

[joeybee12]

13. Do NOT watch that movie. Repeat: Do NOT watch that movie!

How could they make a movie out of the book--simple, make it into a completely different story!

Love the book--hee-larious!

[amazona]

14. when I was a teen

Yes, I'm scarred for life by the liver scene.

The dude certainly had issues with his mother.

Didn't know they had a movie.

[Lady Sonelle]

15. Portnoy's Complaint? Also Known as "The Gripes Of Roth"! Yes, I Have.

I read it when it first came out. I remember quite a lot if it, actually. From his longwinded therapy sessions to his commentaries about his girlfriend, the shicksa "The Monkey" to his imagined First Conquest "Thereal McCoy"

And the cheer: "Wheat bread, rye bread, Pumpernickel, cholla! All those from Weequahic, stand up and holla!"

Lady Sonelle