The hilarious fantasies of Portnoy's Complaint are more realistically and painfully examined in The Breast. The imbued characteristics of a traditional Jewish home life are exposed more frankly; Kepesh de-mystifies his past with the help of Dr. Klinger, a rational realist. Through the ordeal of this almost surrealistic metamorphosis the seeds of the immature Rothian adolescence ripen to a sexually mature professor who daringly exposes his encounters in The Professor of Desire (1977).

Although David Kepesh of The Breast returns as The Professor of Desire (1977), critics have engaged in a debate as to whether he does so in name only. In other words, does Roth simply transfer Kepesh from one novel to another, or does he create an entirely new character? Although possessed of a strong spirit of adventure, Kepesh appears smart enough to understand that his sex drive functions as the instrument for his right to...