The Resume

(March 19, 1933-May 22, 2018)
Resides in Connecticut
Best known for his novel 'Portnoy's Complaint (1969)'
Wrote 'Goodbye Columbus (1960),' 'Letting Go (1962),' 'When She Was Good (1967),' 'Our Gang (1971),' 'The Breast (1972),' 'My Life as a Man (1974),' 'The Ghost Writer (1979),' 'Zuckerman Unbound (1981),' 'The Anatomy Lesson (1983),' 'The Counterlife (1986),' 'The Facts (1988),' 'Deception (1990),' 'Patrimony (1991),' 'Operation Shylock (1993),' 'Sabbath's Theater (1995),' 'I Married a Communist (1998)' and 'The Dying Animal (2001)'
Married to Claire Bloom (1990-1995)

Why he might be annoying:

He is reportedly a cruel, self-absorbed control freak.
He bases his characters on people from his real life, which some critics find inartistic (and mean).
His books sometimes feature characters named 'Philip Roth.'
Prudes find 'Portnoy's Complaint,' his novel about masturbation, to be pornographic.
In one scene, the main character masturbates with a piece of raw liver.
Another book features a character who transforms into a six-foot breast.
His obsession with masturbation caused Jacqueline Susann to say: 'He's a fine writer, but I wouldn't want to shake hands with him.'

Why he might not be annoying:

He graduated from high school at sixteen.
He is prolific.
He isn't afraid to write frankly about sex.
His books are both critically and commercially successful.
He won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
He had to have painful knee surgery.
The painkiller he was prescribed caused his nervous breakdown.
He has a huge fan following.

Credit: Wieland Kalligaro

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [March] (Ranked: 3191933)
• Entertainment Weekly's 100 Best Books [1983-2008] (Ranked: 5)
• GQ's Men of the Year [2008]
• Guggenheim Fellowship Grant Recipients
• Horseshoe Haircut
• I am from Newark, NJ
• I Attended Truman Capote's Black and White Ball [November 28, 1966]
• I Died in 2018 (Ranked: 85)
• I Had a Nervous Breakdown
• I Have a Perfect Jew Score on Jew or Not Jew.com
• I Have Colon Cancer
• I Married in 1990
• I Probably Banged Claire Bloom
• I Probably Banged Mia Farrow
• I Write Bildungsroman
• Jewish Comedians
• Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century [1998] (Ranked: 52)
• New Jersey Hall of Fame (Ranked: 2010)
• NPR's 100 Best Literary Characters of the 20th Century [Authors - 2002] (Ranked: 32)
• NPR's 100 Best Literary Characters of the 20th Century [Authors - 2002] (Ranked: 80)
• Playboy's 55 Most Important People in Sex [2008] (Ranked: 34)
• Profiles 12251-12500 (Ranked: 12374)
• Publisher Weekly's Best-Selling Novel of the Year (Ranked: 1969)
• Satirists and Wits
• Supersized Egos
• Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels [Authors]
• Vaginal Names
• Wieland Kalligaro's Profiles [Series 3]

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 73 Votes: 53.42% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 25 Votes: 56.00% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 19 Votes: 63.16% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 24 Votes: 54.17% Annoying
In 2009, Out of 38 Votes: 65.79% Annoying
In 2008, Out of 24 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
In 2007, Out of 70 Votes: 55.71% Annoying
In 2006, Out of 102 Votes: 73.53% Annoying
In 2005, Out of 204 Votes: 69.61% Annoying
In 2004, Out of 69 Votes: 79.71% Annoying