Responses, Reviews and Attacks
The publication of the novel caused a major controversy in American public discourse. The two aspects that evoked such outrage were its explicit and candid treatment about sexuality and obscenities, including detailed depiction of masturbation, which was revolutionary in the late 1960s; and the irreverent portrait of Jewish identity. It sparked an uproar in the Jewish community, even among New York intellectuals such as Irving Howe and Diana Trilling.
Read more about this topic: Portnoy's Complaint
Famous quotes containing the words reviews and/or attacks:
“Why do I do this every Sunday? Even the book reviews seem to be the same as last week’s. Different books—same reviews.”
—John Osborne (1929–1994)
“There exists, at the bottom of all abasement and misfortune, a last extreme which rebels and joins battle with the forces of law and respectability in a desperate struggle, waged partly by cunning and partly by violence, at once sick and ferocious, in which it attacks the prevailing social order with the pin-pricks of vice and the hammer-blows of crime.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)