id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
en-wikipedia-org-4219		Portnoy's Complaint - Wikipedia			.html	text/html	2284	275	68	Portnoy's Complaint is a 1969 American novel by Philip Roth.[2] Its success turned Roth into a major celebrity, sparking a storm of controversy over its explicit and candid treatment of sexuality, including detailed depictions of masturbation using various props including a piece of liver.[3] The novel tells the humorous monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language."[4][5] Many of its characteristics (such as comedic prose, themes of sexual desire and sexual frustration, and a self-conscious literariness) went on to become Roth trademarks.[citation needed] Portnoy is "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor",[4] and the narration weaves through time describing scenes from each stage of his life; every recollection in some way touches upon his central dilemma: his inability to enjoy the fruits of his sexual adventures even as his extreme libidinal urges force him to seek release in ever more creative (and, in his mind, degrading and shameful) acts of eroticism;[citation needed] also, much of his dilemma is that "his sense of himself, his past, and his ridiculous destiny is so fixed."[4] Roth is not subtle about defining this as the main theme of his book.	./cache/en-wikipedia-org-4219.html	./txt/en-wikipedia-org-4219.txt