Library Journal
LJ's reviewer dubbed this volume ``an entertaining, mature exploration of the conflicts of passion and reason'' (LJ 9/15/77). The plot follows protagonist David Kepesh, who moves between a life of scholarship and carnal adventure. The paperback publication of Roth's Operation Shylock (LJ 4/15/93) should generate interest in this earlier novel.
Charles McGrath
....[T]houghtful, stylistically elegant novel about the paradox of male desire. -- The New York Times Books of the Century
New York Times Book Review
[A] thoughtful, stylistically elegant novel about the paradox of male desire.”
From the Publisher
"Ranks among the major achievements in the literature of our time." —Village Voice
"No one writing can juggle the somber and the ludicrous more adroitly than Roth." —Time
"Philip Roth is a great historian of modern eroticism.... [He] speaks of a sexuality that questions itself; it is still hedonism, but it is problematic, wounded, ironic hedonism. His is the uncommon union of confession and irony. Infinitely vulnerable in his sincerity and infinitely elusive in his irony." —Milan Kundera
"A thoughtful ... elegant novel.... A fine display of literary skills." —The New York Times Book Review