On Unlikeable Characters

My favorite book of all time is Sabbath’s Theater, by Philip Roth. Probably, you won’t like it. Readers seem to fall into two camps: those who appreciate unlikeable characters, and those who do not. And Sabbath’s Theater has a deeply unlikeable narrator.

Personally, I don’t need to like a character. I need to be riveted by their personality, their choices, their voice. But most readers seem to prefer likeable characters. I suspect it makes them feel yucky to be exposed over any length of time to immorality, violence, corruption.

I have my own quirks, as a reader, for sure. But I’m deeply curious about people. I want to know why they do what they do, especially when it’s “bad.”

With that said, I might not have been able to feel for the narrator quite so much if the behavior he exhibits late in the book had been placed front and center. Roth wisely chose to open the book with

Mickey Sabbath mourning the loss of a long-time lover. By page two, Roth has established Sabbath as a libidinous, unfaithful, stubborn, self-serving man. Yet we feel for Sabbath as he mourns all the ways he failed his lover, even when he handles himself badly (sometimes very badly) in the wake of that loss. His most off-putting behavior does not occur until two-thirds of the way through the book. Even then, it’s hilarious and awful, a trainwreck that just keeps unfolding. It’s the opposite of the morality tales our culture was built on.

And does our hero ever learn? You’ll have to read the book to find out.