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The Interpretation of Murder: The Richard and Judy Bestseller Hardcover – 28 Aug. 2006
A dazzling literary thriller - the story of Sigmund Freud assisting a Manhattan murder investigation. Think SHADOW OF THE WIND meets THE HISTORIAN.
THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER is an inventive tour de force inspired by Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to America, accompanied by protégé and rival Carl Jung. When a wealthy young debutante is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate, the mayor of New York calls upon Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to help the surviving victim recover her memory of the attack, and solve the crime. But nothing about the attacks - or about the surviving victim, Nora - is quite as it seems. And there are those in very high places determined to stop the truth coming out, and Freud's startling theories taking root on American soil.
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHeadline Review
- Publication date28 Aug. 2006
- Dimensions16.2 x 3.5 x 23.9 cm
- ISBN-100755331400
- ISBN-13978-0755331406
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Product description
Amazon Review
Despite the outward success of his visit to the USA, Sigmund Freud always spoke as if some trauma had befallen him there. He blamed the country for physical ailments that afflicted him long before his visit. Freuds biographers have been bemused by his reaction, wondering whether some terrible unknown event might have happened in America that could explain this. The Interpretation of Murder is strikingly written literary thriller constructed around Freuds American visit. An attractive young debutante is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious New York apartment and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate. But nothing about the attacks--or the victims--is as it seems.
--Barry Forshaw
Review
‘This is a bold page-turner that propels us from the start with a driving plot and intriguing characters, but also with ideas – a whole history of ideas. It's a richly motivated thriller that will make you reconsider the mysteries of Freud and Hamlet. Here is a novel that you'll only want to put down in order to think more about the book’
(Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club)Book Description
An intricately plotted literary thriller that uses Freud's theories and Shakespeare's HAMLET to solve a devious crime, this is a novel in the bestselling tradition of Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST and Matthew Pearl's THE DANTE CLUB.
About the Author
Jed Rubenfeld studied Philosophy and Psychology at Princeton, Law at Harvard, and acting at the Juilliard School of Drama. A chaired professor of constitutional and criminal law at Yale, he has been described as 'the most elegant legal writer of his generation'.
Product details
- Publisher : Headline Review; First Edition (28 Aug. 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0755331400
- ISBN-13 : 978-0755331406
- Dimensions : 16.2 x 3.5 x 23.9 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,167,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 21,110 in Historical Thrillers (Books)
- 68,783 in Historical Fiction (Books)
- 98,247 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author
Jed Rubenfeld is the Robert R. Slaughter Professor at Yale Law School and an internationally recognized expert on constitutional law. His first novel, "The Interpretation of Murder," was a worldwide bestseller, with over a million copies sold.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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It's not a modern-style crime thriller, though. So if you want fast-paced action you're better off with something a bit less substantial and a little less absorbed in its history and the talking cure.
I thoroughly enjoyed the historical backdrop of New York society and the early progression of Freudian thinking. The scenes with Jung are delightful (especially as he and Freud seek to out-analyse each other), as is the grimy background of 'building America' which illustrates the whole story.
When you get down to the plot it's less impressive, which is why I marked this novel down by a star. In fact the plot feels as if it's really only there to let the author romp around with his interpretation of the characters and the time they lived in. The mystery has all the requisite twists and turns... but they didn't hold my attention as much as the sub-plots did!
If you want some holiday reading with a bit more meat to it than the usual crusader/holy grail tosh, then this is recommended. The price is absurdly low at the moment too, so you get a good few days entertainment for your money!
But if you prefer blood, guts, serial killers and so on, then this one isn't for you...
Based on this fact -for many agree that Dr.Freud was somehow `traumatized' during his sojourn in the USA and biographers never could quite understand why- the author introduces us to the first fictitious character, Dr. Stratham Younger, a young psychoanalyst who welcomes his much admired and distinguished guest and his entourage upon their arrival. And this is where facts meet fiction.
`The Interpretation of Murder' is the product of the author's imagination trying to give an answer to what could have happened in New York that caused Dr. Freud so much distress. So in comes Dr. Younger, Freud's disciple. The day Freud arrives, a very beautiful young heiress is found murdered, the following day another young lady from a prominent family is found wounded and traumatized, but alive. It seems both crimes have been perpetrated by the same person. The second girl has lost her speech and remembers nothing. This is when Dr. Younger is contacted, to try and psychoanalyze this girl, Nora Acton, in order to help her regain her speech and memory. Younger seeks Dr. Freud's advice and the main story takes off from here, with the involvement of the local coroner and Detective Littlemore.
New York and part of its wealthy society are the main background. The City's skyline was constantly changed by the construction of new skyscrapers at the time and it is evident that the author made a thorough and diligent research into many historical and architectural details.
Parts of the book are spoken in first person (Dr. Younger's) and this adds credibility, almost an illusion that that was what really happened.
However, I think that unless you are really fond, into, or well informed about psychoanalysis in general, Freud, Jung, the Oedipal complex, the Hamlet etc., there is a fair chance that at least part of this book cannot be appreciated in its entirety. Learning, revising or freshen up on some long-ago studies can be an added bonus (it was for me), but the blending of too many theories and concepts can also depreciate the story. For example, Younger's many references to Shakespeare's Hamlet, with all due respect, were (my humble opinion) possibly connecting but mostly distracting, diverting attention from the main story line. To some degree, I think confusion -for the reader- prevailed, spoiling a quality that transpires but it is also obscured, made less perceptible.
To be or not to be? I wish I knew the answer. For now, I give this book 3 stars as it did not convince me in full, although I cannot say I `hated' it. On the one hand it is quite informative, on the other the murder mystery within is intriguing. Worth a try.
Top reviews from other countries
Dans un cadre scolaire, j'étudie actuellement Freud et ses théories, et les deux livre de Rubenfeld sont justes au sujet de la psychanalyse, et offre un regard particuliers sur des analyses.
Autant dire que je recommande chaudement ce livre !