The Breast

For other uses, see Breast (disambiguation).

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.

The Breast

First edition cover
Author	Philip Roth
Language	English
Genre	Novella
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	1972
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	113
ISBN	0-03-003716-6
OCLC	482720
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/4
LC Class	PZ4.R8454 Br PS3568.O855
Followed by	The Professor of Desire

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

1. "The Breast". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
2. Shostak, Debra (1999). "Return to The Breast: The Body, the Masculine Subject, and Philip Roth". Twentieth Century Literature. 45 (3): 317–335. doi:10.2307/441922. ISSN 0041-462X.