Portnoy’s Complaint (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: Mid-twentieth century
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, 1940’s, Guilt, 1930’s, Obsession, New Jersey, Jews and Gentiles, Psychoanalysis or psychoanalysts, Bar Mitzvahs
- Locales: Manhattan, NY, Europe, Newark, NJ, Israel
Places Discussed
*Newark. New Jersey city in which Portnoy grows up. At the time he is born, his family lives in Jersey City in a building inhabited entirely by Jews but surrounded by non-Jews whom Portnoy’s parents view as anti-Semitic. Just before World War II, at the urging of Portnoy’s uncle, the family moves into what they consider the much safer environment of Newark, in the almost entirely Jewish Weequahic neighborhood, where Roth himself grew up. There, Portnoy, like Roth, attends the almost entirely Jewish Weequahic High School and eventually feels suffocated by...
[The entire page is 883 words long]
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