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A Novel
by Jed RubenfeldIn this ingenious, suspenseful historical thriller, Sigmund Freud is drawn into the mind of a sadistic killer who is savagely attacking Manhattans wealthiest heiresses
Inspired by Sigmund Freuds only visit to America, The Interpretation of Murder is an intricate tale of murder and the minds most dangerous mysteries. It unfurls on a sweltering August evening in 1909 as Freud disembarks from the steamship George Washington, accompanied by Carl Jung, his rival and protégé. Across town, in an opulent apartment high above the city, a stunning young woman is found dangling from a chandelierwhipped, mutilated, and strangled. The next day, a second beautya rebellious heiress who scorns both high society and her less adventurous parentsbarely escapes the killer. Yet Nora Acton, suffering from hysteria, can recall nothing of her attack. Asked to help her, Dr. Stratham Younger, Americas most committed Freudian analyst, calls in his idol, the Master himself, to guide him through the challenges of analyzing this high-spirited young woman whose family past has been as complicated as his own.
The Interpretation of Murder leads readers from the salons of Gramercy Park, through secret passages, to Chinatowneven far below the currents of the East River where laborers are building the Manhattan Bridge. As Freud fends off a mysterious conspiracy to destroy him, Younger is drawn into an equally thrilling adventure that takes him deep into the subterfuges of the human mind.
Richly satisfying, elegantly crafted, The Interpretation of Murder marks the debut of a brilliant, spectacularly entertaining new storyteller.
In 2007 The Interpretation of Murder won the prestigious Best Read of the Year award from Richard and Judy's Bookclub in the UK (comparable to Oprah Winfrey in the USA).
Chapter One
There is no mystery to happiness.
Unhappy men are all alike. Some wound they suffered long ago,
some wish denied, some blow to pride, some kindling spark of
love put out by scornor worse, indifferencecleaves to them, or
they to it, and so they live each day within a shroud of
yesterdays. The happy man does not look back. He doesnt look
ahead. He lives in the present.
But theres the rub. The present can never deliver one thing:
meaning. The ways of happiness and meaning are not the same. To
find happiness, a man need only live in the moment; he need only
live for the moment. But if he wants meaningthe meaning of his
dreams, his secrets, his lifea man must reinhabit his past,
however dark, and live for the future, however uncertain. Thus
nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting
only that we choose between them.
...
The Dante Club meets the sexual manipulations of Les Liaisons dangereuses in this intelligent historical, first novel...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
The Interpretation of Murder is
inspired by the real-life mystery
surrounding Freud's one and only
visit to America in 1909 when he came to
deliver lectures at Clark University.
The trip appeared to be a tremendous
success and Freud was portrayed
glowingly in newspapers. However,
he returned to Europe referring to
Americans as "savages" and "primitives"
and blaming America for his breakdown in
health, even though he had been sick
well before visiting the USA.
Although many of Freud's theories have
been rejected, his memory, and some of
his methods, ...
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