Sabbath’s Theater (1995) by Philip Roth is a darkly comic and audacious novel that follows Mickey Sabbath, a disgraced puppeteer and unrepentant libertine, as he spirals into self-destruction after the death of his long-time mistress, Drenka. With his career in ruins, his body failing, and his appetites undimmed, Sabbath rages against mortality, societal norms, and his own unraveling psyche—often through grotesque sexual escapades and merciless introspection.
Roth’s prose is blisteringly vivid, blending profanity with poetic grandeur, as Sabbath’s misadventures oscillate between farce and tragedy. The novel’s unflinching exploration of aging, art, and desire earned it the National Book Award, though its graphic content and antihero’s repellent charm divide readers.
A masterwork of transgressive fiction, Sabbath’s Theater is Roth at his most morally provocative and linguistically virtuosic.
