An autobiography from yet another unreliable narrator. Kaysen doesn't even try to hide that it's her medical records being reproduced in the book and that it's her experiences that she is expunging (and it is catalogued under 616.89 Kayse). Not much to say about this novel except that it does have some great passages: Take two valium and don't call me in the morning because there's nothing to talk about.
I started to laugh, standing outside his office, because I'd understood something about him, and it was funny. I couldn't wait to tell him.
When I got into his office I said, " You have three cars, right?"
He nodded.
"The station wagon, the sedan, and the sports car."
He nodded again.
"It's the psyche!" I said. I was excited. "See, the station wagon is the ego, sturdy and reliable, and the sedan is the superego, because it's how you want to present yourself, powerful and impressive, and the sports car is the id - it's the id because it's irrepressible and fast and dangerous and maybe a little forbidden." I smiled at him, "It's new, isn't it? The sports car?"
This time he didn't nod.
This time he didn't nod.
Nice, short read. A good break after Atonement. An excellent way to start the year.
3 comments:
I read this one years ago (before the coated-for-easier-swallowing movie version) - I didn't know it was intended as fiction. I found it in the Biography section of the library, cross-referenced with mental health. Disturbing in parts, but a quick and satisfying read, from what I remember.
I didn't mean to imply it was a fiction read; merely that I had thought it was when I watched the movie. Although I don't remember the movie much, the book itself isn't very difficult to put down - it was fairly PG-13. Only part that grossed me out was when they visited Alice Calais-Callous... but after The Corrections and Fall On your Knees, it's hard to phase me :)
Ah ok - it was the statement regarding that she didn't even try to hide that the medical records were hers that led me to think that. It's an autobiography, why would she try to distance herself from her records?
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