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Peter Hartocollis's novel Oedipus ‘46-’47 is the fascinating story of a young Greek man, Emile (Emilios in Greek), who leaves Greece shortly after the end of the Second World War, and shortly before the beginning of the Greek civil war, to join his siblings and his father in the United States. In doing so, Emile separates from his mother, with whom he had spent the years of German occupation while the rest of the family was in the United States. Furthermore, Emile abandons his studies at the Greek university where he is a medical student, in the hope of a better life and a better education in this country.
Understandably, Emile experiences enormous difficulties adjusting in his new homeland. He has problems with the English language, he does not understand the American culture, and he is homesick, reminiscing about his old friends and a girlfriend in Greece. As the story unfolds, however, the complexities of Emile's family situation are revealed, and it becomes increasingly evident that underlying psychosexual issues are the deeper sources of Emile's existential sufferings.
The primary focus of the story is Emile's struggle to overcome his ambivalence about Ruth, a young woman with whom he becomes involved, and his humiliation over his inability to make love to her.