History Literature / PortnoysComplaint

* ''Literature/PortnoysComplaint'': Alexander Portnoy, on the analyst's couch, recalls how his mother [[JewishMother Sophie]] wouldn't take no for an answer when it came to finishing his dinner. Once she even [[ExaggeratedTrope pulled a knife on him]] in order to make him comply.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: An entire chapter, "Whacking Off," is dedicated to Alex's experiences with masturbation. In his teenage years, he masturbated at every opportunity, and lived in fear of being caught.

* JewishMother: Combined with FreudianExcuse and probably OedipusComplex. Alex attributes his sexual disappointments to his overbearing mother.

* CargoShip: Alex/chicken liver and Alex/cored apple. No, ''[[{{Invoked}} really.]]''

* MatzoFever: Alex tells how in his teenage years, he thought that he had to pretend to be Christian to attract Christian girls. Later, he realized that there's no need for it, because there are plenty of Christian women who are attracted to Jewish men just like him. He cites Creator/ElizabethTaylor as an example, stating that her Jewish husband Mike Todd was "a cheap facsimile of my Uncle Hymie upstairs".
-->Who in his right mind would ever have believed that Elizabeth Taylor had the hots for Uncle Hymie? Who knew that the secret to a shikse’s heart (and box) was not to pretend to be some hook-nosed variety of goy, as boring and vacuous as her own brother, but to be what one’s uncle was, to be what one’s father was, to be whatever one was oneself...

* [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Only Known By Her Nickname]]: The Monkey, most notably.

* TheTamponRun: Alex is still upset with his mother for sending him to buy tampons once when he was 11.

* ShiksaGoddess: Alex's girlfriends — The Monkey, The Pumpkin and The Pilgrim — are this to him. Especially the Pilgrim - he gives her that nickname because she's from a prestigious family, and that's his main reason for dating her.

It was adapted into a film in 1972 written and directed by Ernest Lehman, and starring Creator/RichardBenjamin and Creator/KarenBlack.

* MattressTagGag: Near the end, Alex claims that he's always cruelly punished by the universe for minor transgressions, and imagines that if he's remove a mattress tag, he'd get the electric chair.
--> "This is the police speaking. You're surrounded, Portnoy. You better come on out and pay your debt to society." "Up society's ass, Copper!" "Three to come out with those hands of yours up in the air. Mad Dog, or else we come in after you, guns blazing. One." "Blaze, you bastard cop, what do I give a shit? I tore the tag off my mattress-" "Two." "-But at least while I lived, I lived big!"

* AttemptedRape: Near the end, Alex goes to Israel, where he meets a woman named Naomi. When she refuses his advances, he tries to force himself on her, but fails because he can't get an erection.

* TheLoinsSleepTonight: At the end of the book, Alex travels to Israel, when he realizes that he became impotent. He thinks this is punishment because he left the Monkey behind when she threatened to commit suicide if he doesn't marry her.

* AuthorAvatar: Roth and Alex Portnoy a hometown and an ethnic/religious background, so this trope is inescapable. In a later Roth novel, ''Zuckerman Unbound'', Nathan Zuckerman (who is a blatant AuthorAvatar for Roth) has success with a ribald comedic novel ''Carnovsky'', and gets annoyed when people think that the main character is based on him.

* AuthorAvatar: Roth and Alex Portnoy share a date of birth, a hometown and an ethnic/religious background, so this trope is inescapable. In a later Roth novel, ''Zuckerman Unbound'', Nathan Zuckerman (who is a blatant AuthorAvatar for Roth) has success with a ribald comedic novel ''Carnovsky'', and gets annoyed when people think that the main character is based on him.