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The Breast
 
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The Breast [Audiobook] [MP3 Audio] [Unabridged] (MP3 CD)

by Philip Roth (Author), David Colacci (Reader)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product Description

Product Description

Like a latter-day Gregor Samsa, Professor David Kepesh wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed. But where Kafka’s protagonist turned into a giant beetle, the narrator of Philip Roth’s richly conceived fantasy has become a 155-pound female breast. What follows is a deliriously funny yet touching exploration of the full implications of Kepesh’s metamorphosis—a daring, heretical book that brings us face to face with the intrinsic strangeness of sex and subjectivity.

“The Breast is terrific . . . inventive and sane and very funny. The trick which is the heart of the book is brilliant . . . and rich with meaning.”—John Gardner, The New York Times Book Review

“Hilarious, serious, visionary, logical, sexual-philosophical; the ending amazes—the joke takes three steps beyond savagery and satire and turns into a sublimeness of pity. One knows when one is reading something that will permanently enter the culture.”—Cynthia Ozick


From the Back Cover

"A radical, complex, and moving book...the best example yet of Roth's astonishing prowess when he is at the top of his talent and control." —Ted Solotaroff, Esquire

"A new shock world of sensual possibility.... Need one say again that Roth is an admirable novelist who never steps twice into the same river?" —Anthony Burgess

"The Breast is terrific...inventive and sane and very funny. The trick which is the heart of the book is brilliant...and rich with meaning." —John Gardner, The New York TImes Book Review

"Hilarious, serious, visionary, logical, sexual-philosophical; the ending amazes—the joke takes three steps beyond savagery and satire and turns into a sublimeness of pity. One knows when one is reading something that will permanently enter the culture." —Cynthia Ozick --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Slight but worthwhile, Sep 19 2001
By Jeffrey Ellis "bored recluse" (Richardson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Breast (Paperback)
Ah, Phillip Roth. The dirty old man of American literature; if he didn't exist, someone would have surely created him. Ironically enough, that someone would probably be one of the people who find him and his work to be terribly offensive. At times, Roth seems to be writing specifically to offend, as if he knows that without his dirty thoughts, a lot of self-appointed puritans would have a lot less outrage to keep their days active. Certainly, The Breast is a book that superficially seems to be designed specifically to offend delicate sensibilities. The book's narrator wakes up one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a huge female breast. The rest of this rather short book (I completed it in a little less than an hour) is devoted to detailing how this one man adjusts to his new life as a breast. Though Roth never goes for any glib explanations as to how or why this transformation took place, one can't help but get the feeling that the narrator -- so obsessed with sex -- finally just transformed into that which he had become fixated. However, one can't also help but feel that this explanation is a result of reading too much into Roth's whimsical, deadpan fable.

Anyway, as for the meat-and-bones of this review, this is a book that I have to recommend to all Phillip Roth fans and to anyone with an affinity for bizarre, off-center satire. If you don't like Roth, you probably won't care much for this book. As well, this is not a book to read if you're looking for an introduction to Phillip Roth. Though amusing, its certainly not anywhere near his best work.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Silly- A Kafka wannnabe, Mar 31 2003
This review is from: The Breast (Paperback)
I don't have much to say about this story, other than it is not silly enough or over the top enough to be good. Absurdism is fine, but there isn't really much beyond a man turning into a giant boob. It seems to rip off Kafka & even points it out, but lacks the depth of Kafka. The characters are not as interesting as K, or Samsa, or any other Kafka characters. The Rilke poem on the last page is a poor translation, and looks silly following this story- The "you must change your life" feels forced ... It' doesn't flow like in Woody Allen's "Another Woman"- where that same poem line is used.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Roth does Kafka, May 27 2001
By J. F Malysiak "macafferty" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Breast (Paperback)
More a curiosity than great literature, and certainly not representative of the best Roth has to offer as a novelist. For that, you're better off picking up a copy of "American Pastoral". What works here is the sheer audacity of Roth's style and the effortless flow of his narrative.

"The Breast" is the first in a trilogy completed by the recently published "The Dying Animal". Professor of comparative literature David Kepesh wakes up one day to discover himself in the hospital, having been transformed into a 155-pound female breast. The ensuing 89 pages depict his rationalization for such a sudden and drastic change, his trying to convince himself and others - his girlfriend, his father, his doctor, and a university mentor - that he has only gone insane, and his quest to satiate an ever-present, raging libido.

None of this really amounts to much and it certainly isn't great literature. I kept expecting it all to come to some elevated meaning. It doesn't. But that aside, I did enjoy reading it, found myself cracking a grin or two, and as ever with Roth, I was in awe of the flow of his narrative and the strength of his voice.

It's an hour or two's diversion but by no means much more than that. Bottom line - not bad, but not earth-shakingly good. For that, crack open "American Pastoral", which is in my opinion one of the greatest American novels of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Going Bust
I would agree with the review below that Roth doesn't do enough with his scenario here. Roth seems to shrink away from the obvious potential for travesty that his subject allows;... Read more
Published on Jul 3 2000 by John Cardenas

3.0 out of 5 stars Readable, but only partly successful.
How's this for a premise: a university professor one day inexplicably turns into a human breast. It's a memorably bizarre set-up that launches Roth on all his usual speculations... Read more
Published on April 23 2000 by elljay

5.0 out of 5 stars "It Began Oddly"
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. Read more
Published on Mar 16 2000 by Matthew Weaver

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow...
This book is incredible. I actually had to put this book down several times while reading it just to "relieve" myself. A GREAT read. Definitely worth it.
Published on Feb 7 2000 by Susan

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stimulating and Provacative Fantasy
Phillip Roth opened the door to many readers with this illusional essay on a human transforming into a human breast and describing all of the stimulus that a female erotically... Read more
Published on Nov 21 1998

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