Sabbath’s Theater Audiobook By Philip Roth cover art

Sabbath’s Theater

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Sabbath’s Theater

By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: John Turturro
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Winner of the National Book Award

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Pastoral delivers his “richest, most rewarding novel” (New York Times Book Review), about Micky Sabbath, a scandalous hero who embarks on a turbulent journey into his past.

Once an inventive puppeteer, Sabbath at sixty-four is still defiantly antagonistic and exceedingly libidinous. But after the death of his longtime mistress—an erotic free spirit whose adulterous daring surpassed even his own—Sabbath, bereft and grieving and besieged by the ghosts of those who loved and hated him most, contrives a succession of farcical disasters that take him to the brink of madness and extinction.

©1995 Philip Roth (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Psychological
Masterful Storytelling • Profound Character Study • Brilliant Interpretation • Raw Emotional Depth • Vulgar Authenticity
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Humor and Joy is all over John Turturo’s reading. This
Is a wonderful listen. Enjoy!!

John Turtoro is great!!! This is hilarious

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Classic Roth, who is the G.O.A.T. of American fiction.

Turturro is the best possible narrator of this particular work. It's as if it was written for him. I've never heard a narrator perform dialogue as well is he in this work. Like Roth, Turturro is a master.

A classic Roth masterpiece

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Amazing story narrated by an amazing actor! Raw and realistic. I enjoyed listening every scene of this tragicomedy of life.

Great book. A story about a puppeteer who was a rebellion at his time who loved life and his women

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Tuturro’s performance is amazing. Lots of pervy talk shouted into your ears like a crazy person

Crude n lewd and sportin a tude

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One of the most unflichingly cruel and honest books I've yet read. Turturo's performance might be the finest I've heard of any audiobook reading. Spiritually and emotionally draining yet resonant with deep truth lifted from the bowels of cultural repression.

Revolting and Brilliant

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Most people say a book is better than the movie. Well, this is the best combination: unabridged book read by a professional actor with the perfect voice for the characters. Makes you laugh and cry. Highly recommended.

Book + Turturro = Awesome!

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Deliriously over the top, yet also very real and deeply felt, and insightful into human sexuality.

Main characters

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Such a refreshing break from all the work out there that plays it safe. Philip Roth’s body of work will enrich your life. If the Zuckerman series seems overwhelming, Sabbath’s Theater is a great entry point to discover why you should read him. I started with The Plot Against America, then went back to the beginning with Goodbye, Columbus. Then I started working my way through all the Harold Bloom recommended Roth novels and finally made it to Sabbath’s Theater. This is some of his best work. Now it’s onto American Pastoral.

Great stand alone Roth novel.

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At first I really did not like this book. It seemed merely like ramblings of an old pervert. As the depth of mourning, the tremendous challenge to fate, to Gods themselves that guide the filthy selfish bastard unfold, this book becomes an incredible tribute to the depth of human feelings, suffering, and still - love. This book is easily one of the best American books altogether.

What a glorious, sordid, fabulous story of an awful guy mourning tremendous losses

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What an astonishingly deep, revealing, vulgar tale of man’s struggle for meaning. Having read so much of Roth’s peers, I’d never read one of his novels. Not even Portnoy’s Complaint. His literary life follows Steinbeck and Hemingway, just preceding Pynchon and Delillo. Sabbath’s Theater crossed my path in a very random search for something that had to be better than the state of the novel in 2024. The unvarnished tale of a man by concentrating on his life being fully occupied by his sexual desire, his view of the world defined by fxxking, his attempt to redeem himself through the memory of his dead brother, the raw correct vulgarity. This novel was moving and immersive. I hope to make a long effort traveling through Roth’s other work.

Wow.

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