This book was on top of my summer reading list, I started in Lebanon and finished it there. It’s one of those books that you just don’t wanna put down ! It’s so thrilling, shocking, interesting and absolutely brilliant ! The author kept on pulling me to read more and more, that even when I finished it, I wanted more of his writing and more of this story. A MUST READ ! I completely and totally recommend it !

Jed Rubenfeld is a Profesor of Law from Yale University and this novel, one of the big hits of 2006-07 in the UK, is pretty much what you might expect. It is a literary thriller and a well-plotted one at that. I found it interesting that the edition I have carries an endorsement from Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow. I didn’t notice this until I had finished the book, but all the way through I was thinking that this reminded me very much of The Dante Club, which I read a couple of years or so ago, with its blending of real-life intellectuals from history with low-life fictional characters and historical fact with fictional imaginings.

It is certainly a compelling read and is written by someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to writing, but I felt that Rubenfeld hadn’t quite yet got the hang of fiction writing. The mystery becomes increasingly convoluted and then everything is revealed in a mad rush at the very end, rather than the mystery being tantalisingly unravelled throughout by a series of well-placed clues. Even the most seasoned reader of detective literature would not have a chance of getting anywhere near the solution. The problem with this is that it doesn’t allow the reader to play the role of detective effectively.

The other weakness in the book for me was the portrayal of the real-life characters. Freud is portrayed as partly King Lear and partly a genius with almost clairvoyant abilities, surrounded by a group of intellectual sycophants and revelling in his own guru-like status, whereas Carl Jung is portrayed as a scheming and delusional egotist. (Perhaps, rather, Jung is Iago to Freud’s Othello?) Both of these may be true, but we are offered no other dimensions to their characters. The fictional (but partly autobiographical??) ‘central’ character, Dr Younger, a disciple of Freud, seems obsessed by Hamlet and its use as a tool for unlocking the mysteries of the Oedipus Complex. In fact, Freud, Jung and Younger (a joke, here, presumably) and their fellow psychoanalysts seem incapable of talking about anything but psychoanalysis. In the author’s biography, we are told that Rubenfeld wrote his undergraduate dissertation on Freud and also studied Shakespeare. It seems that he is trying to cram all of his student work into this novel (why waste all that research?) and it gets a little tiresome after a while.

On the other hand, I found the fictional characters much more interesting and appealing. Whilst some of them are similarly one-dimensional (especially Banwell, the speculator and entrepreneur), the character of Detective Littlemore grows into the most attractive and intelligent of them all, in spite of his lack of formal education. I ended up harbouring both an affection for Littlemore (he was the one who kept me reading and enjoying the book) and a sympathy for his having to live surrounded by these other insufferable people. Now I’m not sure what Rubenfeld’s Freud would have made of that!

There is no mystery to happiness. All unhappy men are alike. Some wound they suffered long ago, some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of love put out by scorn–or worse, indifference–cleaves to them, or they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of yesterday.

Thus begins Jed Rubenfeld’s psychology-driven murder mystery, The Interpretation of Murder.

The setting is turn of the century New York (1909). The economy is booming. Manhattan’s famous sky scrapers are just about taking shape, many more new buildings are in the making. On the roads, the automobile is quickly replacing the Horse-driven carriage. Power, money and celebrity have gripped the city’s rich who’ve never had it so good.

But money, as they say, cannot buy you love and other such intangible needs. This inevitably gives rise to the mentally scorned.

Another very important event occurred that year: Sigmund Freud, the father of Psychoanalysis was on his first, and only, visit to America. He is to deliver three lectures on psychoanalysis at the Clark University. He is accompanied by his two followers, Carl Jung and Sandor Ferenczi. He is received at the Hoboken Harbour by the protagonist of the Novel, Dr Younger Stratham, a young, budding Psychoanalyst, who had to work very hard to convince the old man to come to America. He’s accompanied by Abraham Brill, a Psychologist and a big fan of Freud.

Freud is amazed by everything he sees. The underground rail, the magnificent buildings and the American life style. Beneath all this though, Freud believes something is terribly wrong with America. What exactly it is, he never tells.

At about the same time though, in one of the newly constructed posh Apartments of Manhattan, a young women is being tied, whipped, cut and eventually choked to death by a psychotic man. The news never makes it to the papers, thanks to the owner of the apartment building, George Banwell. The mayor of New York, Charles McClellan, assigns the task of finding the killer to the Coroner, Charles Hugel, and a little known detective, aptly named, Littlemore.

Two days later, a similar attack happens. The victim again is a young woman, Nora Acton, daughter of a filthy rich couple. Nora, however, is not dead, but she has lost her voice and memory of the killer. Not aware the similarities between the two attacks, McClellan assigns the task of retrieving Nora’s memory to Dr Younger, who’s in turn helped by Freud.

What follows is a dramatic unfolding of the murder mystery.

Jed Rubenfeld makes great use of his knowledge of Dr Sigmund Freud, 19th century New York and Shakespeare in constructing the thriller. His knowledge of New York is exemplary and is visible in the minute details he mentions about the city’s social life and the English that the city’s elite speak. The plots and sub-plots are well-knitted. In short, it’s a page turner of the highest order with a totally unpredictable ending. There’s a healthy sprinkling of psychology, which is one of my favourite subjects (though I never pursued it academically). In fact, it’s one the reasons I bought the book in the first place. Don’t regret the decision one bit.

Related readings…

Official website of the book: http://www.interpretationofmurder.com/

Spent about 3-1/2 hours at Crosswords today. 2 hours with the guys from Hyderabad Photography Club at Flickr and the remaining searching books. Here’s what I came out with (click on the links to know more about the books):

The Interpretation of Murder – By Jed Rubenfeld – Rs. 280/-

Tales from Firozsha Baag – By Rohinton Mistry – Rs. 295/-

Anandmath – By Bankim Chandra Chatterjee – Rs. 175/-

Ravan & Eddie – By Kiran Nagarkar – Rs. 295/-

Identity and Survival – Sikh Militancy in India – By Kirpal Dhillon – Rs.  395/-

Red Earth and Pouring Rain – By Vikram Chandra – Rs. 395/-

Suffice it to say, I am not even sure I’ll read all of them. Feels good to own them though.

Update: Prices added.

So i decided to take a break from the books and went shopping…..and this is what i returned with:

Ok so first of all unfortunately i didn’t find ANY clothes, not even that bargain blazer from Peacocks! But i did take a trip to Dorothy Perkins and i ended up buying these cute teal patent soft pumps (was £15 now £3) yes you read that correctly, only £3!. They feel very comfortable on my feet…..perfect for those long shopping days *sigh*

I also bought Cooking Mama for my Nintendo ds lite (which im completely addicted to). I’ve wanted this game for a while, so i couldn’t exactly say no to a good deal now could i? (usually £20 i got it for £10.80 with student discount at HMV). It’s bascially a game where you are a chef in training, and you have to learn how to create meals, present them to ‘Mama’ by using the touch screen, stylus and mic on the ds.

Other shopping items include:

• the feb issue of Vogue UK
• vitamin E cream cleanser, exfoliator, and moisture cream, all from the Body Shop (buy 3 items get £5 off!). The sales assistant also convinced me into buying a ‘facial brush’ which apparently you are supposed to use with your cleanser to help give your skin much more of a glow. So i’ll let you know soon how glowy my skin gets with it!             
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• 2 books. The first is ‘The Interpretation of Murder’ by Jed Rubenfeld……. and the second is ‘The Russian Concubine’ by Kate Furnivall. I will post reviews in regards to both books as soon as i have had a chance to read them. If you have read them yourself, then feel free to leave your comments        

Indian Rose x

Какво е общото между Фройд, Америка (или по-точно Ню Йорк през 1909г.), убийството на богато девойче в Манхатън, Юнг и бума на строителството на небостъргачи? Книгата The Interpretation of Murder.

Тази книга всъщност е МакДоналдс на книгите. Има кримка, философия, подкупни и покварени политици, достоверни данни за историята и архитектурата на Ню Йорк, анализ на Шекспировият ‘Хамлет’, детайли за раздора м/у Фройд и Юнг, и (не се майтапя) детайлно техническо описание на строежа на мост ‘Манхатън’. А да има и тайно общество с пръстените му и всичкото, което се оказва че иска да съсипе репутацията на Фройд, защото го счита за неморален. Всичко естествено е плитко и масово, за да се разбира и в същото време за всеки има по-нещо.. мания.

Действието общо взето върви така: Фройд е поканен за първи път в Америка, където го боготворят, за разлика от Европа, за серия лекции. Докато е в Ню Йорк наследничката на богата фамилия е убита в апартамента си в най-скъпата жилищна сграда в Манахтън. На следващият ден е направен опит за същият тип убийство – девойката е вързана, бита и удушена с бяла, копринена вратовръзка, но този път тя по-чудо оцелява. Оттървава се само с шок, загуба на паметта и говора. По стечение на обстоятелствата – клюки и общи познати Фройд, Юнг и цялата банда психоаналитици са въвлечени да и помагат да си върне паметта. После един от тях се оказва Супермен (др. Янгър, напълно измислен за разлика от останалите участници в драмата) защото освен богат, психоаналитик, красив и с минало успява да се измъкне от платформа на дъното на река, влачейки след себе си куфар с доказателства. Знам че звучи неясно – тази част много-много не я разбрах…После се оказа, че най-вероятния убиец е един супер богат строителен предприемач, който обаче по времето на първото убийство е бил извън града с кмета на Ню Йорк. Още по-заплетено стана, когато се разбра, че убитото момиче всъщност не е било мъртво ами някой е подкупил патолога на Ню Йорк, за да каже че е имало труп, но после някой го е откраднал от моргата. И това е около 1/68 ма от действието…Накрая естествено хванаха убиеца, Фройд си изнене лекциите с небивал успех и се раздели с Юнг. Младите се залюбиха – девойката със загубената памет и др. Янгър. И така.

Ако искате да си упражнявате английския или сте колекционер на факти относно някоя от гореспоменатите теми пишете да ви пратя моето копие от книгата – няма ниакъв смисъл подобни книги да се купуват, имат или пазят. Не си заслужават отсечените дръвчета.

Synopsis (from back of book):
When a wealthy young debutant is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate, the mayor of New York calls upon Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to help the surviving victim recover her memory of the attack, and solve the crime. But nothing about the attacks – or about the surviving victim, Nora – is quite as it seems. And there are those in very high places determined to stop the truth coming out, and Freud’s startling theories taking root on American soil.

Review:
The mark of a good book is when it spurs the reader on to do some further research for themselves and that is what happened with The Interpretation of Murder as I was intrigued enough to do a little basic research on Freud and Jung so I can get some background to their ideas and practices though, as I was not really very familiar with them other than very superficially. (I still wouldn’t claim to be anywhere near an expert now, but I enjoyed looking into their backgrounds and theories.)

There was one little bit I liked in particular, about great discoveries and “revolutionary bursts of genius” all occurring at the beginnings of centuries. I did find it funny, however, that Shakespeare writing Hamlet in 1600 was included in that, as 1600 was the last year of the 16th century, not the 1st year in the 17th – it kind of cracks the theory a little, but it did make me stop and think!

I especially liked that the narrative was in both third and first person (from the point of view of Stratham Younger). I wonder if getting to see his inner mind in particular was because the character is a psychoanalyst and makes a living trying to do just that with other people.

The mix of factual historical events, albeit occasionally slotted into a different time-frame to suit the story, gave it an air of realism that might otherwise have been lacking. I also thought I had sorted out a couple of red herrings and worked out the guilty party’s identity. As it turned out, I was half-right and for some of the right reasons, but part of it took me completely by surprise, which is always nice with a murder mystery.

Reviewed by Kell Smurthwaite