The kiss that the Swede refers to?
in the book, in Swede's inner monologues he refers to a kiss and apologizes for it?
did he kiss Meri in an inappropriate way, or was he referring to something else?
I believe Merry asks him once to kiss her like he kisses her mother. Completely innocent, but when the Swede goes crazy trying to understand why his little perfect turned into a murdering terrorist, and looks for any explanation, he starts thinking perhaps that kiss messed her mind.
I think it only shows how desperate the Swede was to rationalise the crime Merry committed. We shouldn't infer that he molested her or something similar.
Tu sei la prima donna del primo giorno della creazione.
I was very surprised that Swede gave in to that temptation...it seemed so out of character and I thought maybe Roth just used it as a vehicle of some sort.
shareThe speech therapist mentioned that she thought something was wrong at home and that "the father" had something to do with it. Maybe Merry gave her the idea that there was sexual abuse at home. Maybe Merry saw that kiss as abuse when she was older and used it (partially) as an excuse for hating her father (in addition to the "capitalist pig" bit)? And then there was the whole thing with Rita Cohen, the hotel and the $10,000. If Merry really was in cahoots with Cohen (the book never explained that, or if it did I missed it) then she has a seriously messed up Elektra complex. Of course you could come to that conclusion without out the Rita Cohen incident.
I'm sorry. I just finished the book and I feel that I missed a lot.
Or was Rita Cohen largely a figment of his imagination? A surrogate for Merry, in effect? I found it curious that no other character in the book mentions or reacts to Rita, and Merry doesn't really explain who she is when the Swede meets her at the end. The Swede certainly seems to lose his mind temporarily midway through the book, given the Angela Davis hallucinations, et. al, so it seems entirely plausible.
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