Freud only visited the States once and that was quite enough; though why it was enough remained a mystery until today, when Rubenfeld’s novel explores a possible explanation. Rubenfeld recreates early Twentieth Century New York with great energy and allows us to meet not only Freud himself but also Jung, Ernest Young and the Brooklyn Bridge!
It’s a cracking read and has a fabulous climatic scene set in a submerged caisson beneath the river, where the two heroes are looking for a body in a trunk.
How about this for exit velocity?!
‘ One, two – three.’ Younger pulled the red handle. The ceiling panels opened at once, and two men, yelling for their lives, with a black trunk in tow, shot up through an elevator shaft full of water as if fired from a cannon.’
If you know of Freud’s famous Dora case, then this book with its beautiful, ‘mixed up’ protagonist Nora provides a provocative critique- and like the Dora case the reader may cry out ‘No no no!’ at some of the very contentious assumptions and blind spots of ‘science’.
A great way to spend a day!
