"Upon its release, though, it got decidedly mixed reactions. Readers, rabbis, and reviewers accused Roth of anti-Semitism, misogyny, sexual excess, deviance, and creative gimmickry. In Commentary, Irving Howe wittily if wrongly claimed that the 'cruelest thing anyone can do with Portnoy's Complaint is to read it twice.'"
"In Zuckerman Unbound, Roth's recurring stand-in, Nathan Zuckerman, seems to regret having written his version of Portnoy's Complaint at all. He accuses himself of betraying every woman who has ever been 'bound to him by trust, by sex, by love.' His agent urges him to quit 'trying to show them up in heaven and over at Commentary.'"
"Stade considered it not only an apology but also a concession to the reactionary 'custodians of our high literary culture.' His review reads as if it were common knowledge, in 1981, that critics and readers were so prudish that Roth had to write a whole other novel wringing his hands over his sex book."
Philip Roth's 1976 novel Zuckerman Unbound was interpreted as an act of contrition following the mixed reception of Portnoy's Complaint in 1969. The earlier novel, while acclaimed, faced criticism from readers, rabbis, and reviewers who accused Roth of anti-Semitism, misogyny, and sexual excess. In Zuckerman Unbound, Roth's protagonist Nathan Zuckerman regrets writing his sexually explicit novel and accuses himself of betraying women. Literary critic George Stade viewed the work as an apology to conservative cultural custodians. However, this interpretation may overstate the prudishness of the era, as other significant American writers including Erica Jong, James Salter, and John Updike were simultaneously producing acclaimed literary works featuring explicit sexual content.
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