History Literature / PortnoysComplaint

It was adapted into a film in 1972 written and directed by Ernest Lehman, and starring Richard Benjamin and Creator/KarenBlack.

* MatzoFever: Alex tells how in his teenage years, he thought that he has to pretend to be Christian to attract Christian girls. Later, he realized that there's no need for it, because there are plenty of Christian women who are attracted to Jewish men just like him. He cites Creator/ElizabethTaylor as an example, stating that her Jewish husband Mike Todd was "a cheap facsimile of my Uncle Hymie upstairs".

-->''Portnoy's Complaint: A disorder in which strongly felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature...''

[[AC:This novel provides examples of:]]

''Portnoy's Complaint'' (1969) is an American novel by Creator/PhilipRoth. The novel tells the humorous monologue of Alex Portnoy, a sex-obsessed Jewish youth who confesses his often bizarre sexual encounters to his psychotherapist. As he grows older, he becomes a close adviser to the Mayor of New York City and struggles to square his desire to help society with his outsized sexual appetites, which eventually reaches a breaking point. Though it was originally banned in several countries due to its explicit content, it is now often ranked among the greatest novels of the 20th century, and is one of Roth's most popular books, along with ''Literature/AmericanPastoral''.

''Portnoy's Complaint'' (1969) is an American novel by Creator/PhilipRoth. The novel tells the humorous monologue of Alex Portnoy, a sex-obsessed Jewish youth who confesses his often bizarre sexual encounters to his psychotherapist. Though it was originally banned in several countries due to its explicit content, it is now often ranked among the greatest novels of the 20th century, and is one of Roth's most popular books, along with ''Literature/AmericanPastoral''.

* MatzoFever: Alex tells how in his teenage years, he thought that he has to pretend to be Christian to attract Christian girls. Later, he realized that there's no need for it, because there are plenty of Christian women who are attracted to Jewish men just like him. He cites Creator/ElizabethTaylor as an example, stating that her Jewish husband Mike Todd was " cheap facsimile of my Uncle Hymie upstairs".

* MatzoFever: Alex tells how in his teenage years, he thought that he has to pretend to be Christian to attract Christian girls. Later, he realized that there's no need for it, because there are plenty of Christian women who are attracted to Jewish men just like him.

* AuthorAvatar: Roth and Alex Portnoy share a date of birth, a hometown and an ethnic/religious background, so this trope is inescapable.

* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: Alex is obsessed with sex, and feels guilty about it.

''Portnoy's Complaint'' (1969) is an American novel by Creator/PhilipRoth. The novel tells the humorous monologue of Alex Portnoy, a sex-obsessed Jewish youth who confesses his often bizarre sexual encounters to his psychotherapist. Though it was originally banned in several countries due to its explicit content, it is now often ranked among the greatest novels of the 20th century, and is one of Roth's most popular books, along with ''AmericanPastoral''.

''Portnoy's Complaint'' (1969) is an American novel by Philip Roth. The novel tells the humorous monologue of Alex Portnoy, a sex-obsessed Jewish youth who confesses his often bizarre sexual encounters to his psychotherapist. Though it was originally banned in several countries due to its explicit content, it is now often ranked among the greatest novels of the 20th century, and is one of Roth's most popular books, along with ''AmericanPastoral''.

* ShiksaGoddess: Alex's girlfriends — The Monkey, The Pumpkin and The Pilgrim — are this to him.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: As a teenager, Alex was obsessed with sex and girls, but muchto his frustration, he never really grew out of it.

-->.Day and night, at work and on the street-thirty-three years old and still he is roaming the streets with his eyes popping. A wonder he hasn't been ground to mush by a taxicab, given how he makes his way across the major arteries of Manhattan during the lunch hour. Thirty-three, and still ogling and daydreaming about every girl who crosses her legs opposite him in the subway!

* ADateWithRosiePalms: An entire chapter, "Whacking Off," is dedicated to Alex's experiences with masturbation.

* OnlyKnownByHerNickname: The Monkey, most notably.