http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/5/6/lifebookshelf/16984554&sec=lifebookshelf
In theory, a good read
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By Jed Rubenfeld
Publisher: Nan A. Talese, 224 pages
(ISBN: 978-0385516457)
SOCIAL glitterati, the murder of beautiful high society girls, sadomasochism, jealousy, love, sex and a dose of psychoanalysis. These are all ingredients of a modern-day, high-power thriller novel.
However, this author has decided to give it a twist by making psychoanalytic theories the mainstay of the plot. Readers may fear that such an endeavour would turn the novel into a ponderous exposition of academic theories with the storyline relegated to second fiddle, but they can be assured that action remains the driving force behind the entire book.
The story revolves around a wide range of characters, including fictional versions of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and his famous disciple, Carl Jung. There are also a sundry of his other followers who would be familiar to students of psychoanalytic theories and less to lay people so I will not mention them here.
A pivotal character who does not exist in the real world is Dr Stratham Younger, a young American follower of Freud. There are other major characters such as Charles Hugel, the fictional New York City coroner, George Banwell, a powerful and calculating businessman from New York’s high society and Clara, his beautiful and charismatic wife. There is also Nora Acton, the achingly lovely and unforgettable young heiress, but the story would not move forward the way it does were it not for Younger. And sharing the driver’s seat is Detective Jimmy Littlemore.
While there are many stories going on at the same time, the main plot centres around the complicated teenaged Acton, with whom George Banwell (a friend of her father) is sexually obsessed with.
The novel opens with a supposed murder of a beautiful young woman portrayed as a victim of BDSM (patterns of human sexual behavior like bondage and discipline, or sadism and masochism). A parallel beginning is the first-person narration of Dr Younger of New York City, where the entire story takes place, about his first meeting with Dr Freud and his other disciples.
As the story evolves, one sees how these two separate incidents converge at the psychoanalysis of Acton by Dr Younger. Readers who are too impatient to sift through the extensive discussion of psychoanalytic theories and academic rivalry may be tempted to skip all that and get to the “meat” of the action, and in doing so, they run the risk of losing the substance of the story. As a matter of fact, many of these “theories” are actually the author’s way of explaining the different characters.
Finally, there is a separate story involving some high-standing members of society who are bent on overthrowing Freud and would resort to anything, including murder, to accomplish their goal.
As the story progresses, readers will be led through a maze of many twists and turns.
The difficulty in writing a novel with such a massive plot is that some of it becomes lost in the details. The earlier part of the novel seems to not gel too well with the latter part, and there are parts of this book that require some work from the readers in order to understand certain characters and scenes.
The novel is a scintillating read for the most part, except for some minor loose ends, though some sections may get a little too ponderous for readers merely looking for a fast-paced, page-turner. However, if you persevere through all the dramatic scenes, you will find much in common between real life and fiction.
