Sabbath's Theater

Summary

Mickey Sabbath, an aging former puppeteer living in rural New England, careens through memory and present-day humiliation following the death of his longtime mistress. Roth writes in long, vehement sentences that braid grief, lust, and bitter comedy, refusing any tidy reckoning with the protagonist's transgressions. It is among the most linguistically charged and morally provocative novels in his body of work.