Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy's Complaint is the story of the ever-pubescent Jewish man, trying to escape into manhood from the clutches of the quintessential Jewish mother, Sophie, whose compulsive neatness and cleanliness take control of her son, the kitchen, food, the bathroom, and sex, and Jack, his insurance agent eunuch of a father, a lifelong liberal living in constant fear of his WASP employer, who have managed to load him with about as much guilt as possible to keep him from growing up and leaving home. Alexander Portnoy, at 33, is on the analyst's couch for much of the novel, spilling out his contempt for his life to the unseen analyst and smothering him with details of his sexual obsessions. The novel is full of his masturbations and sexual orgies as he tries to move into manhood. "Ma, Ma, what is it you wanted to turn me into anyway, a walking zombie like Ronald Limkin? Where did y

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Category: Literature - P