CHARLES PERRY – Portrait of a Young Man Drowning. Simon and Schuster, hardcover, 1962. Signet, paperback, February 1963. W. W. Norton & Company, softcover, 1996. Film adaptation: 1997 as Six Ways to Sunday, starring Norman Reedus and Deborah Harry

   A bildungsroman of Harry Odum, from a child with an Oedipus complex, to mob hitman. And everything in between.

   I guess it’s really two different story arcs, one literal, one figurative: the rise and fall of a mother-fucker.

   So it all starts relatively innocent enough. Mama loves her baby. And she doesn’t want him to love anybody else more than her. And she doesn’t ever want him to leave her. And he must always care for her. As she did for him.

   And as a kid it doesn’t look that weird. But as mama starts driving off all eligible bachelorettes, chastising her full grown son for his divided attentions—things start to get weird.

   And at the same time, we see Harry growing from small-time hoodlum to big time enforcer. And with the money he’s bringing in, he can bring Ma to the top o’ the world Ma, top o’ the world.

   And he does.

   Of course when you get to the top, you got much further to fall.

         —

   Beautifully orchestrated Oedipal mob story, where a child’s development into a psycho-killer is inextricably intertwined with his twisted sexuality, to the point that he can only be aroused by murdering someone. And only then and immediately must he find a mate, a mate denied by his mother, til she’s the only one left.

   Pretty hard core stuff. But well done.-