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CONTENT WARNING: READER DISCRETION ADVISED Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air. —from Plath, Sylvia. “Lady Lazarus.” 1962. It was 1960. I was nineteen, living at home with my parents. “Charles!” “Uh?” “Richie has a flat.” I rolled out of bed and stumbled after my mother into the kitchen. She thrust a receiver into my hand and lit a Chesterfield. I grunted. “Richie?” “Git your ass over here.” The receiver crashed in my ear. My mother stiffened and clasped her robe. I threw on my cleanest dirty shirt and hopped into the '52 Pontiac—a hunk of junk that cracked up Ollie, Richie’s father. An anxious excitement propelled me through the ghostly streets; I parked behind the dark shapes outside Richie’s and hurried into the suburban house using the passage way between the garage and the kitchen. An atmosphere of blighted camaraderie prevailed in the tidy, Sears-chic living room. Larry, Richie’s older brother, was saddled with a welfare cheat and five kids in th

1. When Corine comes out of the hall, she sits down beside me and says "It's me," counterpoint to what I said to her earlier when she asked me if I were Larry.   2. In the Graduate (1967) Benjamin rejects his chance to sleep with Mrs. Robinson. I had aspirations to sleep with Corine, which were clearly impossible.  3. The Lazarus theme is present.  4. Corine helped separate me from my mother.  5. She demonstrated the power of female sexuality over the male. 6. She is sympathetic when we take into account her pain and motivation. 7. Corine's performance was best in the same way Ann Bancroft was in the Graduate .