Graeme Macrae Burnet has delivered an oddly fascinating book in "Case Study" which will have you trying to keep things balanced as you strive to lock down what is real. This is a book of fiction... probably. The characters are fabrications... probably. The narrators are reliable--well, not really. And so it goes.
"GMB" has contemplated writing a biography of Collins Braithwaite, a flakey, flamboyant psychoanalyst who was once the toast of 1960's London. Braithwaite could boast celebrity clients and anti-psychiatric best selling books with titles of "Untherapy" and "Kill Your Self." One day GMB is presented with journals of an unnamed woman whose mission was to prove Braithwaite's direct responsibility for the suicide of her sister, Veronica. This woman's strategy was to become a patient under an assumed name, Rebecca Whyte, with a completely different identity-- this so she could avoid any connection to her late sister.
We see Braithwaite for the cad he is. He is cruel to women, dangerous and manipulative with the lives of those who put their trust in him. Meanwhile we see the created character of Rebecca, who began merely as a cloaking device, evolving into a "self" fulfilling needs her original personality craves and has never allowed herself to indulge.
"Case Study" poses a number of questions regarding psychiatry and the search for one's true "self," but keeps you off-guard with unreliable sources throughout. Its humor and utterly original characters earned it a spot on the Longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. Highly recommended.
"'But what's the point in being someone you're not?' I said. "'What's the point in being whoever it is you think you are?'"-- Unnamed... or, was that Rebecca?
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
"GMB" has contemplated writing a biography of Collins Braithwaite, a flakey, flamboyant psychoanalyst who was once the toast of 1960's London. Braithwaite could boast celebrity clients and anti-psychiatric best selling books with titles of "Untherapy" and "Kill Your Self." One day GMB is presented with journals of an unnamed woman whose mission was to prove Braithwaite's direct responsibility for the suicide of her sister, Veronica. This woman's strategy was to become a patient under an assumed name, Rebecca Whyte, with a completely different identity-- this so she could avoid any connection to her late sister.
We see Braithwaite for the cad he is. He is cruel to women, dangerous and manipulative with the lives of those who put their trust in him. Meanwhile we see the created character of Rebecca, who began merely as a cloaking device, evolving into a "self" fulfilling needs her original personality craves and has never allowed herself to indulge.
"Case Study" poses a number of questions regarding psychiatry and the search for one's true "self," but keeps you off-guard with unreliable sources throughout. Its humor and utterly original characters earned it a spot on the Longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize. Highly recommended.
"'But what's the point in being someone you're not?' I said. "'What's the point in being whoever it is you think you are?'"-- Unnamed... or, was that Rebecca?
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
