AS MUCH AS HE WANTS TO BE THE MARQUIS DE SADE, HE IS NOT. AS MUCH AS HE WANTS TO BE SEVENTEEN, HE IS NOT. AS MUCH AS HE WANTS TO BE DEAD, HE IS NOT. He is Mickey Sabbath, the aging, raging power house whose savage effrontery and mocking audacity are at the heart of Philip Roth's bold and hilarious new novel. Once a scandalously inventive puppeteer, Sabbath at sixty-four is still defiantly antagonistic and exceedingly libidinous. But, after the death of his long-time mistress-an exotic free spirit whose adulterous daring exceeds even his own-Sabbath embarks on a turbulent journey into his past. Bereft and grieving, besieged by the ghosts of those who loved and hated him most, he contrives a succession of farcical disastrous that take him to the brink of madness and extinction.

Sabbath's Theater is a comic creation of epic proportations, and Mickey Sabbath is its gargantuan hero. Philip Roth, in his twenty-first book, is at the very peak of his powers.