The Breast
1972 novella by Philip Roth
0-03-003716-6Dewey Decimal
The Breast (1972) is a novella by Philip Roth, in which the protagonist, David Kepesh, becomes a 155-pound breast.[1][2] Throughout the book Kepesh fights with himself. Part of him wishes to give in to bodily desires, while the other part of him wants to be rational. Kepesh, a literature professor, compares his plight with that of fictional characters such as Gregor Samsa in Kafka's short story The Metamorphosis and Kovalyov in Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Nose". Throughout the novel, he describes the various sexual and physical feelings he has while people handle him, while initiating sex with his girlfriend, and while he is alone.
During a stay on the beach with his girlfriend, Claire, Kepesh had wished to have breasts, to be a breast, and he struggles with the idea that apparently this wish was fulfilled while other more important wishes were not.
References
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Works by Philip Roth
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| Kepesh novels |
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| Roth books |
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| Zuckerman novels |
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| Nemeses: Short Novels |
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- Reading Myself and Others (1976)
- A Philip Roth Reader (1980, revised edition 1993)
- Shop Talk (2001)
- Library of America collection (2005–17)
- Goodbye, Columbus (1969)
- Portnoy's Complaint (1972)
- The Human Stain (2003)
- Elegy (2008)
- The Humbling (2014)
- Indignation (2016)
- American Pastoral (2016)
- The Plot Against America (2020)
- Deception (2021)
Philip Roth: The Biography
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