Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to New York and Boston serves as the backdrop to this page-turner of a mystery novel. Doctor Stratham Younger is asked to psychoanalyze a young woman, Nora Harcourt, who was brutally attacked but has lost her memory of the crime. It quickly becomes apparent this was not the first attack of this kind. As Younger investigates the crimes from his viewpoint as a doctor, Detective Littlemore begins to investigate the crimes as well, working under the supervision of Coroner Hugel. Bodies go missing, other bodies are found, and the plot twists and turns with first one likely suspect and then another. Throughout Younger applies Freudian theories in his attempts to learn the truth from Nora. I found the depictions of early 20th century New York City and its citizens fascinating, along with the discussions and dispute between the various factions of psychiatry, leading up to Carl Yung's break with Freud. Younger uses Shakespeare's Hamlet to develop his theories about the crime and its solution.Jed Rubenfeld is a law professor at Yale. This is his first novel but not his first book. Among others he co-authored (along with his wife Amy Chua) The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America, reviewed here. He's written a follow up to The Interpretation of Murder, another work that explores Freud: The Death Instinct, which I look forward to reading soon.
Jed Rubenfeld. The Interpretation of Murder. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. 367 pages. ISBN 9780805080988. Advance Reader's Edition.
No comments:
Post a Comment