''Sabbath's Theater'' is a
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
by
Philip Roth about the exploits of 64-year-old Mickey Sabbath. It won the 1995 U.S.
National Book Award for Fiction.
[ The cover is a detail of ''Sailor and Girl'' (1925) by German painter Otto Dix.
]
Summary and themes
Mickey Sabbath (modeled after American Jewish painter R.B. Kitaj) is an unproductive, out-of-work, former puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the ...
with a strong affinity for prostitutes, adultery
Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...
, and the casual sexual encounter. Sabbath takes great pleasure in his status as the prototypical "dirty old man." He takes an equal pleasure in manipulating the people around him, primarily women—in a sense, they play the same role as his puppets. The loss of a decades-long wingman—the equally depraved Drenka—precipitates a crisis in a life he has long considered an utter failure. Sabbath wonders whether he should simply take his own life, thereby heeding the advice of the ghost of his departed mother, a frequent visitor who urges suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.
Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
as the fitting end for his failed life.
Reception
Literary critic Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". Af ...
has declared ''Sabbath's Theater'' Roth's "masterwork." Prominent literary critic James Wood told '' The Morning News'', "I am a great fan of ''Sabbath’s Theater'', it was an extraordinary book." ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' critic Michiko Kakutani
is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.
Early life and family
Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...
found it hard to finish and "distasteful and disingenuous".
It won the National Book Award
The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
for fiction["National Book Awards – 1995"]
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
(With essay by Ed Porter from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)—thirty-five years after Roth's debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
'' Goodbye Columbus'' won the same award (1960). It was also a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
.
After Roth's passing, the ''New York Times'' asked several prominent authors to name their favorite Roth book. Claire Messud picked ''Sabbath's Theater'', writing: "The novel, outrageous when it was first published is all but inconceivable today; which is part of what makes it literarily important. Roth fearlessly embraces the ugliness of the aging degenerate, with Dostoevskian zeal. He manages to do so with such wit and in such pyrotechnic prose that this reader, at least, doesn’t hurl the book across the room."
Stage version
In 2023, the Signature Theatre Company put on a stage version of ''Sabbath's Theater'' at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre of the Pershing Square Signature Center, an off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
theater. The play was adapted from Roth's novel by Ariel Levy and John Turturro, with Turturro starring as Mickey Sabbath. The play was directed by Jo Bonney.
References
{{Authority control
1995 American novels
Novels by Philip Roth
National Book Award for Fiction–winning works
Houghton Mifflin books