SYNOPSIS

Alexander Portnoy is an American Jew who, in a long monologue with the psychoanalyst, Dr. Spielvogel, talks about personal problems related to the conflictual relationship with his mother, Jewish traditions and sex. His inability to enjoy the sexual act leads him to have experiences that he instantly regrets but from which he cannot escape. And his desperate search for happiness in a normal and banal life is continually frustrated by the prohibitions of religion and by the morbid attachment to his mother.

REVIEW

From my personal female point of view, it is difficult to express an opinion on this book. The recurring sexual theme can be quite boring. But, I must admit that, at some moments, I felt empathy for the character and for his complex psychic and personal situation in relation to the time in which the story is set. To me the author has done an excellent job in describing the internal and external conflicts that cause instability in a person’s life.
The author has chosen a first-person narrator who makes good use of direct dialogues and monologues to tell his story. The secondary characters are presented through character traits that remain imprinted in the reader’s mind. The descriptions of the places are not very in-depth and are transmitted by the subjective vision of the protagonist’s emotions. As for the dialogues, however, they reproduce quite faithfully family and social conversations through which readers can feel identified. Finally, time is an element that the author has been able to use correctly to advance the story and slow it down when necessary, and the plot clearly exposes the themes chosen to deal with.