The Double Bind (Vintage Contemporaries) by Chris Bohjalian
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Book Reviews of The Double Bind (Vintage Contemporaries)
Book Review: An interesting twist!
Summary: 4 Stars
A good read even though about half way thru the twist starts to become apparent if you're paying attention.Book Review: A good read with an unsatisfying resolution
Summary: 3 Stars
I had not read Chris Bohjalian's work, and picked up an audio download of The Double Bind (Vintage Contemporaries). That may NOT have been the perfect choice since it's so much harder to flip back, and this book demanded it. However, the reading by Susan Denaker was effective and the recording well-produced.
This book is difficult to review without spilling secrets, an important consideration in a story where clues are laid down all the way through and the big surprise is at the end. The main character, Laurel, had been viciously attacked while biking on a Vermont country road and her emotional recovery from that awful experience is by no means complete. She is a social worker at an agency for the homeless in Burlington, Vermont, and becomes obsessed with the photographs left behind by a deceased client. Her pursuit of the homeless photographer's story takes her back and forth from Vermont to her childhood home on Long Island.
The story is woven through with the fictional characters from Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, discussed as though they had really existed; the author refers to this slice of 1920s society as "hollow, sullen and morally insolvent." The reader must hold this thread along with the strands of Laurel's stories, present and past, and the photographer's history. Together these strands weave a seemingly complex knot, which disappears like Houdini's Vanishing Knot with the final revelations of the book.
I love a psychologically complex story with a surprise ending. When it's well done, the reader may reconsider the plot elements and leave the book with a new appreciation for the author's skill. In The Double Bind Bohjalian laid his smoke screen down too well, obscuring the "truth" of the book. Multi-layering is a good thing in fiction - in this case fiction posing as fiction posing as reality - but readers may wish that Bohjalian had fit the layers together more carefully.
I would love to give the book more than three stars because of the interesting theme and smooth prose style; but measured against what he could have given us, this book falls short in the plotting details. I'll certainly read more of this author's work.
Linda Bulger, 2008
Book Review: I Felt Duped
Summary: 3 Stars
You probably shouldn't read this review-- assuming you want to-- until you have finished this novel. I must say that I reacted in a way that I cannot remember ever before to a work of fiction. I have been bored, awed, moved, intrigued, even angry a time or two. When I came to the final pages of THE DOUBLE BIND, however, I felt as if I had been tricked, not a good feeling. When Nabokov does wonderful things with puns and anagrams and takes me on a delicious word ride and, yes, may even trick me at times, I am delighted. What happens here is not that at all.
A thousand years ago I learned about narrators in fiction. As I recall there is something known as an unreliable narrator. Surely that is what we have here but how can that be, I ask, if the story is told in the third person?
The novel certainly will hold your interest, all the references to THE GREAT GATSBY are fascinating, the writing is facile, the discussion of the homeless in America is sad and topical, the photographs (from an actual once-homeless person) are beautiful, and finally Mr. Bohjalian's observation that homeless people didn't start out being homeless and were once productive citizens who had lives and occupations and were loved by friends and family is moving. All the king's horses and all the king's men, however, cannot repair the fissure in this novel's ending. Certainly the author dropped hints along the way and they became more obvious and increase in number as the story reaches its climax. On the other hand, even if the character Laura does "journal," as the therapists would say, the way the narrative unfolds, how could most or all (?) of what takes place in this novel have been a figment of her traumatized imagination? For example: aren't there whole passages in the novel that occur when she is nowhere to be found and it would have been impossible for her to recreate them?
Yes, I felt duped.
Book Review: Such potential, but ultimately a rip-off
Summary: 3 Stars
BEWARE OF "SPOILER" ... BUT THEN AGAIN, IT MAY SAVE YOU TIME. The 3 stars are for wrapping the actual photos of "Soupy" Campbell into the story. They're for the intriguing link with The Great Gatsby. They're for a compelling story with multiple layers of meaning. This could have been a great book earning 5 stars. Instead, however, it turns out that the author was dishonest with his readers. I feel insulted and cheated, robbed of my time and emotional investment in the book. There are literary devices that could have made this work. However, the author took the easy way out. As a result, upon completing the book, and, I would venture, even upon rereading it (although I haven't wasted my time), it is impossible to tell what was "real" and what was imagined by the main character. There are no dividing lines or hints such as narrator point of view or what characters were present in the scenes. The imaginary scenes turn out to have been so pervasive, that we are left without knowing what, if anything, was real. Maybe that's the point, so I give it these generous 3 stars. But I wish the author worked a little harder and demonstrated some integrity. I feel betrayed and robbed.Book Review: Good Story but, Meh....
Summary: 3 Stars
I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover but when the cover includes reviews from very reputable sources (The Washington Post, New York Book Review, etc.) and is marketed as a literary thriller, I think I can be forgiven when I expect the content to actually live up to these standards. It does not.
Is the story good? Yes; the concept of centering a mystery on the ill fated Buchanan family of the Great Gatsby is very clever. Did this manifest into a gut twisting, page turning thriller? Not even close. The thing is if Bohjalian kept the story focused on the Buchanan plot, I think this book would've been very good. There is certainly plenty of intrigue there to make a twisted tale. Instead Bohjalian dilutes the story with a large assortment of random characters and sub-plots that bog the story down and strip it of any real suspense. After a while, I found myself just reading the book to get it done with.
If you like Great Gatsby, you'll probably find this book entertaining but if you have something else available the you know is a great read, I suggest you pass this one by.