He is relentlessly defiant. He is exceedingly libidinous. His appetite for the outrageous is insatiable. He is Mickey Sabbath the aging raging powerhouse whose savage effrontery and mocking audacity are at the heart of Philip Roths astonishing new novel. Sabbaths Theater tells Mickeys story in the wake of the death of his mistress an erotic free spirit whose adulterous daring exceeds even his own. Once a scandalously inventive puppeteer Mickey is now in his mid-sixties and besieged by ghosts - of his mother his beloved brother his vanished first wife his mistress of thirteen years. Bereft and grieving he embarks on a turbulent journey back into his past one that brings him to the brink of madness and extinction. But no matter how ardently he courts death he is too exuberantly alive to succeed at dying. Sabbaths Theater is a comic creation of epic proportions and Mickey Sabbath is its gargantuan hero. This book which presents Philip Roth at the peak of his powers is sur