Thoughts on Philip Roth?

I remember liking his prose when I initially picked up one of his books – often uses long, well crafted sentences with a simple elegance that keeps you glued in, is able to somehow create a cozy, in-touch feel – but, I’ve been reading him again. The prose now seems a bit over the top – almost masturbatory. The long sentences now feel tedious, unnecessarily stretched, one after another. He seems to go against what is commonly said to be ‘good writing habits’.

Is part of his reputation built on readers wanting to be a reader of ‘the sophisticated author’? Align themselves with an ‘intellectual’?

Or maybe I need to get used to it again, having just read novel of simpler prose, short to medium length sentences.