The story of a young Jewish boy from about age 13 to 33. Alexander is guilt-ridden and lustful. He doesn't get much emotional support from his parents. His dad works hard and has digestive problems, spends a lot of time in the bathroom. His mom is a bit nuts, using cruel games and tricks to discipline her son, locking him out of the house and threatening him with a knife.
Alexander manages to survive his teenage years and grows up to become a successful lawyer, doing work he finds important and meaningful. But at age 33, he feels that something is lacking and that maybe he needs to settle down and start raising a family. But instead of doing that, he hooks up with various women, finally ending up with a beautiful New York model that he actually despises. He views her as stupid, ignorant, and slutty, all of which are true, unfortunately. She seriously wants to be his wife but he knows that would be a mistake, for him any way. They travel to Europe and after an adventure with an Italian prostitute, he dumps the model and runs away to Israel where he tries to rape an Israeli female soldier. Tries.
The story is told as a session with a therapist but at the end (SPOILER) you find that the session hasn't even started yet: "So [said the doctor]. Now vee may perhaps to begin. Yes?"
I thought this was supposed to be an amusing story but I didn't find it so. It's just 300 pages of Alex whining about his life. He is not a good person, you discover as you read further in the story. He's a dickhead. Does he figure that out in the end? I don't know. Or care.
How he sees himself, about midway in the story:
"...a brainy, balding, beaky Jew, with a strong social conscience and black hair on his balls, who neither drinks nor gambles nor keeps show girls on the side; a man guaranteed to give them [girls who would like to marry him] kiddies to rear and Kafka to read—a regular domestic Messiah! Sure, he may as a kind of tribute to his rebellious adolescence say shit and fuck a lot around the house—in front of the children even—but the indisputable and heartwarming fact is that he is always around the house. No bars, no brothels, no race tracks, no backgammon all night long at the Racquet Club...or beer till all hours down at the American Legion...what we have before us...is a Jewish boy just dying in his every cell to be Good, Responsible, & Dutiful to a family of his own."
So, I found the book kind of dull and Alex's nonstop whining tedious. I would sit down to read a bit of it and within thirty minutes I'd be falling asleep. This happened almost every time I tried to read it. I don't know, maybe I just couldn't identify with Alex Portnoy.
It does have some amusing moments, like when he molests a piece of raw liver. And when he falls and breaks his leg chasing after a girl. And, this is kind of shitty to say, but his girl friend's note to the lady who cleans her apartment was pretty funny: "dir willa polish the flor by bathrum pleze & dont furget the insies of windose mary jane r"
Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.
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