Jed RubenfeldCritiques

interesting-and clever if a bit too "freudian" for my tastes. The author says he let his daughters read a pg version. It's hard to imagine what that would consist of.

Historical Fiction

Nueva York, 1920. La Guerra Mundial ha terminado, pero aún no han llegado los prósperos Años Locos. Y ahora a la euforia bélica le ha sucedido el desplome económico de la posguerra. Las fábricas cierran, las familias pierden sus casas, y los desahuciados y los despedidos ni siquiera pueden ahogar sus penas en la bebida, porque ya rige la Ley Seca. Las calles de Manhattan hierven de resentimiento y confusas pasiones, y el 16 de septiembre, a las doce y un minuto, estalla una bomba enWall Street ante las puertas del banco de J. P. Morgan, muy cerca del edificio del Tesoro de los Estados Unidos. Y, a unos cincuenta metros de la escena del crimen –hubo treinta y ocho muertos y cientos de heridos–, también están Stratham Younger, el joven médico y discípulo de Freud, y Jimmy Littlemore, el detective de la policía de Nueva York, que diez años antes y con una pequeña ayuda de Freud se enfrentaron en La interpretación del asesinato a una serie de sádicos crímenes. Stratham se ha citado allí con el detective porque la hermosa, reservada y quizá desesperada Colette, una discípula de Madame Curie que ha venido con él desde Francia, necesita hablar con el detective, tiene algo que contarle. Y lo que sabe –o esconde Colette– quizá sea la primera pista que permita descifrar el horror desencadenado ante ellos...

Nueva York, primera década del siglo XX, una época fascinante y turbulenta en una gran ciudad que está entrando de lleno en la modernidad. Se levantan los primeros rascacielos, aumenta la población con oleadas de inmigrantes que cambian la fisonomía de los antiguos barrios, y también se triplica el índice de delincuencia. Y no sólo los pequeños delitos, porque en estos años se sucede entre la alta sociedad de Nueva York una serie de asesinatos y de escándalos sexuales. Pero la modernidad de Nueva York no son sólo escándalos, rascacielos y automóviles, sino también el interés que despiertan las ideas que están cambiando el mundo.
El 29 de agosto de 1909, invitado por la Universidad de Clark, llega Sigmund Freud acompañado de sus discípulos Ferenczi y Jung. Y esa misma noche, en un lujoso apartamento del novísimo edificio Balmoral, encuentran el cadáver de una joven. Estaba atada, y había sido azotada y estrangulada con una elegantísima corbata de seda blanca en lo que quizá fuera un juego sexual que rebasó todo límite. O tal vez la obra de un sádico asesino en serie. Porque al día siguiente, otra rica heredera, Nora Acton, una rebelde para los cánones de la época, consigue escapar a un ataque del que parece ser el mismo asesino. La hermosa Nora tiene las claves para descubrir al asesino, pero ha perdido la voz y sufre de amnesia. La familia pedirá al doctor Stratham Younger, un joven seguidor de Freud, pero también experto en Shakespeare, que psicoanalice a Nora para que pueda recordar lo que sucedió. Y es el propio Freud quien supervisa las sesiones.
Pero no son el oscuro móvil de los crímenes ni la identidad del asesino los únicos enigmas que tienen en vilo al lector en esta espléndida novela. ¿Qué le sucedió a Freud en Nueva York, a qué ataques y conspiraciones tuvo que enfrentarse, que nunca más volvió a los Estados Unidos y llegó a decir que sus habitantes eran unos salvajes?

I came close to throwing in the towel on this book multiple times within the first 180 pages but stuck with it mainly to see what the author would do with this tumultuous time period. I was also pleasantly surprised that he had some flash backs to the battles fields of WWI, which I always find interesting. Sigmund Freud and Marie Curie are characters in this book and I enjoyed the way Rubenfeld used both of their discoveries and theories as part of the scaffolding for his story. There's political intrigue, scientific discoveries, cutting edge medical treatments, social unrest, prohibition, abuse of workers, capitalist tycoons, classism, sexism, Italian-bashing, antisemitism, rape, white slavery, multiple trips across the Atlantic, a car and motorcycle chase, an airplane ride, and lots of other historic tidbits and thriller novel conventions, but none of it seems overly forced to me. Rubenfeld is a skilled writer to pack in as much as he does without the story getting too clunky. While the novel never became a page turner for me, the reading did pick up after those first 180 pages. I'm glad I stuck with it just to see how much he was so skillfully able to weave into what I thought was a very good story. The two big things that were lacking for me were well-rounded characters that I cared about and atmosphere. Hence, the two star rating: it was okay and I'd recommend it to historical fiction fans.

If I had only read the first half of the book, I'd have awarded it 4.5 stars. The research that Rubenfeld did to craft this book was immense and really brought early 20th-century New York to life in a fascinating way. The seamless blend of fiction and historical fact, combined with a gripping plot made the book unputdownable. However, the ending was quite ridiculous and I was bitterly disappointed.½

Sigmund Freud en Carl Jung komen aan in New York; ze zijn uitgenodigd om een aantal lezingen te geven. Psycho-analyse is begin 1900 nog een controversieel onderwerp. Het gezelschap wordt ontvangen door de jonge arts Younger (die deels als ik-persoon het verhaal vertelt). Het levenloze lichaam van een jonge rijke vrouw wordt gevonden in een luxueus appartement. Ze is met een zweep bewerkt, vastgebonden en gewurgd. Vlak daarna wordt een meisje van een gegoede familie aangerand en gewond gevonden, maar ze leeft nog. Ze kan zich niets meer herinneren en ook niet meer praten. De burgemeester roept de hulp in van Freud, maar die laat het over aan Younger. Wat is er gebeurd met het meisje Nora? Is de dader van de aanranding ook de moordenaar?
De onbeduidende, maar intelligente en vasthoudende inspecteur Littlemore is belast met het onderzoek.
Er worden veel personages opgevoerd in deze roman en hier en daar is het wat moeilijk te volgen, maar het verhaal is wel intrigerend met de mix van fictie, historie, wetenschap, seks, rangen en standen en waargebeurde feiten.½

Loved the history and the way the story was worked into the real events. Very interesting and enjoyable book...

[This is a review I wrote in 2007]

Not your run-of-the-mill thriller, Jed Rubenfeld has expertly crafted this book around Sigmund Freud's psychological theories, his work, "The Interpretation of Dreams", and his most famously known case-study, "Dora", here in the novel loosely portrayed as the character Nora. There is much debate amongst the characters about Freud's Oedipus complex theory, and a further interwoven strand of analysis involves theories about Shakespeare's "Hamlet", and in particular Freud's Oedipal analysis of Hamlet and Ophelia.

It's an extremely clever blend of fact and fiction, based around Freud & Jung's visit to the US in 1909; the crime, of course, is pure fiction! The plot is fast-paced, with twists, it seems, every few pages. This one really did keep me guessing almost to the very end. Very occasionally the theorising weighs it down just a fraction, hence the 4 stars. An intelligent & intriguing thriller, with likeable characters - I can highly recommend it.

An interesting psychological thriller/historical fiction but slow in spots. I didn't love it.

Nice insight into interplay of insecurity and superiority complexes, and how the spread of Ayn Rand’s radical egoism has driven the decline of impulse control in contemporary American culture.

On the other hand, the book is rife with misinformation on Mormons in particular (citing Krakauer as your source for objective info on Mormon groups??). It’s clear the authors skimmed 3-4 pop culture books on mormons so they could jump on the “mormon moment” bandwagon of the early 2010s to sell a few thousand more copies.

Greatest quote: “...equality isn’t fair to African Americans. Superiority is the one narrative that America has relentlessly denied to or ground out of its black population, not only in the old era of slavery and Jim Crow, but equally in the new era of equality, when everyone must kowtow to the idea that there’s no difference between different racial groups...
...It’s one thing for a group with a longstanding superiority complex to pledge allegiance to the idea of universal equality... It’s quite another thing for a group with a long history of inferiority narratives behind it to be asked to pledge allegiance to the same ideal.”

And:

“The only justifiable national superiority complex is one true to America’s constitutional ideals of equality and openness. America remains today the country most open to the talents and dreams of all. That is a superiority worth aspiring to—a superiority that includes rather than excludes, and at its best restrains rather than fosters imperialism.”

The denouement was convoluted and slightly unconvincing. And when the author credited his young daughters for helping with the structure of the novel, noting that they read a PG version, I wondered how much narrative was left once the bondage, fellatio, erotic asphyxiation, and flagellation was removed from the plot. Not my taste in literature, personally. I also wondered how plausible, in medical terms, was the hero's death-defying escape from the flooding caisson at the bottom of the river. Can one really escape "the bends" simply by exhaling during a far-too-rapid rise to the surface? The author's impressive educational credentials include legal, psychological, and dramatic background, not medical. But the squabbling amongst the psychoanalysts (often in their own words gleaned from published material) was amusing and New York of 1909 in all its gritty glory was a fascinating panorama. (However, sometimes I suspected Rubenfeld of dragging in irrelevant characters and events simply for purposes of atmosphere, because he felt this or that thing was too interesting to omit. Some also made serviceable red herrings.) I particularly liked the protagonist's take on both the Oedipal theory and Hamlet. I'm tempted to rip out some relevant pages and file them inside one of my reference works on Hamlet...

Loved this book. Can't remember the last time I was so engrossed in a novel! Oh wait - I can. It was "the Secret History" by Donna Tartt...

I don't often read popular fiction because the writing is often clunky. No exception here, but the story was compelling and fun enough to keep me going.

Having read freud and Jung it was interesting to see them in flesh and blood as characters who play a part in solving the mystery.

This is a well researched and interesting who-dunnit type of tale set in the 1920s New York and Vienna and Paris. The novel features Freud and Marie Curie among others. The novel was a touch too long for me as the twists and turns of the story meandered around but it was generally interesting and I learnt a lot and wanted to finish it.

I almost put this book down without completing it. I'm glad I persevered. It turned out to be an interesting read, mostly because of the explanations of Freud's theories. The plot has a lot of twists and turns, not all of which are plausible. Some of the plot lines and characters that I thought implausible turned out to be drawn from real events. But the plot line does move forward very nicely.½

On August 29, 1909, Dr. Sigmund Freud and his colleagues, aboard the George Washington lands in New York...

Later, on the same day, a young woman is brutally beaten and murdered in her apartment in downtown New York...

The Interpretation of Murder, written by Jed Rubenfeld, is, essentially, a murder mystery, about the strange events that happened the same week Dr. Sigmund Freud, Dr. Carl Jung and Dr. Sandor Ferenczi arrived in New York City to deliver a set of lectures.

The Interpretation of Murder a multi-layered novel. On the surface is the story of Dr. Freud's first time visit to America, being shown around New York by American psychiatrist Dr. Abraham Brill and Dr. Stratham Younger, alternating with the mystery of a potential serial killer on the loose, targeting rich debutantes. Underneath, the author presents his characters' and his own ideas and opinions on the theories of psychology and psychoanalysis, of the human mind and behavior. And because of Dr. Younger's passion for Shakespeare, there is also a literary layer wherein he dissects the existence Hamlet and the meaning of his famous question: "To be or not to be..." using psychoanalysis and Freud's principles of sexual repression.

Chronicling the parallel the events of Freud's visit to America and growing conflicts with Carl Jung, and the mystery of the murdered and assaulted debutantes, the narration in the novel alternates between third person to Dr. Younger's first person point of view - Dr. Younger being the only character involved in both stories.

Though a work of fiction, most of the characters in the novel are real or based on real people who were involved in the actual events described in the novel, or in similar events that took place during the characters' lifetimes. In fact, the only fictional characters in the novel are Dr. Stratham Younger, and some of the characters involved in the murder mystery, including Detective Littlemore.

According to the author, Jed Rubenfeld, he did intensive research on the events, architecture and culture of New York in the early 1900's as well as the works of Dr. Sigmund Freud and Dr. Carl Jung. Rubenfeld also stated that he drew heavily from Freud's, Jung's and the other psychiatrists' research papers, letters, and other historical documents to create their dialogues, discussions and debates presented in the novel.

Freud's visit to America with Carl Jung and Sandor Ferenczi to lecture at Clark University is also a real event. Though it is a well-known fact that Dr. Freud developed a certain disdain for America during his first visit, it is not entirely known what had caused these negative feelings. After his first seemingly traumatic visit to New York, Dr. Freud never returned to America.

The Interpretation of Murder gives readers a glimpse of the culture and society of New York at the turn of the century, illustrating the general fear of the irreversible changes brought on by groundbreaking and controversial principles of psychology and human behavior.

Normally I am turned off with novels about real people in fictitious events and situations, but Rubenfeld's execution of Freud's, Jung's and the other historical figures' involvement in the murder mystery aspect of The Interpretation of Murder was carefully done and in good taste. The different elements in the novel - mystery and suspense, psychology, and literature, works in creating a riveting, intellectual novel.

Despite the articles stirring controversy about this book ("Tiger Mom and husband are racists and say why their groups are better! WARBLEGARBLE"), I found its main thesis straightforward and applicable to any cultural or subcultural group. The authors also stress that these three traits are keys for *economic* success, so if goal is different, then the Triple Package won't be a complete fit.

The three traits are 1) a superiority complex (that a particular group or identity is 'chosen' or 'better' for some reason, be it religious ideology or depth of civilization through time), 2) a sense of inferiority (which grinds against 1, causing the group or individual to want to do better. Reasons for this feeling are given as scorn, fear, and family though there's certainly others), and 3) impulse control (yep, the famous marshmallow experiment is mentioned. The Amish are mentioned as a group that has this part under lock, but lacks the first two because their culture's goal is to be humble [though you can have prideful humility :P]).

Surprisingly short read- within one day during highway portions of a road trip (only possible as the passenger). The extensive end-notes show they pulled research from everywhere, so this feels like a pop-sci meta-analysis.

Top class entertainment, with a lesson on psychoanalysis thrown in. Freud comes over as a fine father-figure and Jung as a prize s***, which I now have a sneaking suspicion may be the case. Plot gets a bit overcomplicated at times, but I felt that was the point. Enjoyed the speculations about Hamlet and about the oedipus complex, amusing and actually made some sense.

A nonsensical, sub-Alienist serial killer plot? Yawn. Freud? Sure. Long digressions into Hamlet? Whatever. This book felt like three (each not very good) novels mashed together. See, this is what sometimes happens when intellectuals write novels. They just HAVE to show how smart they are. I thought this sounded interesting, but Rubenfeld comes off as particularly insufferable and pompous, and none of the characters were interesting enough to redeem the tedium. Sorry.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. On one hand it was thoroughly researched and anyone who is really interested in Freud and Jung and their beliefs would probably enjoy it more than I did. Unfortunately I was never very fascinated with either of them, so some of this book was a bit of a slog for me. But the author really brought to life the time period, and the two primary characters (Stratham Younger and Detective Littlemore) are interestingly written and worthy of respect. Rubenfeld did lose me a little at the end in his resolution of the crime. It seemed overly complicated and very difficult to follow. While this particular story didn't bowl me over, I am looking forward to reading the follow-up book.

I have ambivalent feelings about this book. On one hand it covers a very interesting episode in history – the 1920 bombing of Wall Street. This fact alone and the characters based on historical people that featured in the story made for some interesting research on Wikipedia. I also loved the character of Jimmy Littlemore and his determination to uncover who was behind the bombing. Jimmy is open and friendly, and treats others with respect while being self-effacing. He reminds me a little of Columbo as other characters tend to underestimate him and his cleverness. I enjoyed his part of the story much more than Younger’s.

Stratham Younger on the other hand, I was starting to dislike. In between novels he apparently had married and then lost Nora, his patient in ‘The Interpretation of Murder’. His inappropriate and baffling attachment to her never boded well and I wasn’t surprised that their marriage had apparently been miserable. So what does he do but form another attachment to a girl, again one keeping secrets, again with family secrets, again who wants nothing to do with him. Personally I have no patience with gluttons for punishment. This relationship ended a bit better, but by then I’d lost respect for Younger’s character.

In this book the two characters didn’t spend much time together, so the chapters tended to alternate between the two storylines. I found myself eventually flipping much faster through Younger’s chapters. Although the book was well written I ultimately found it unsatisfying and found it a bit of a slog. I think this was mostly because of my disappointment with Younger’s character though, so I’m not letting it affect my rating, which is a solid 4.

I really enjoyed the concept of this story. Perhaps because you don't get a lot of mysteries or psychological thrillers (if you can really call it that) that directly involve psychology, but I really can't say for sure. By all accounts though, I shouldn't have liked it. It was choppy and difficult to follow at times. There were a number of story lines that were introduced and only referenced occasionally, then disappeared for half the book before popping up again towards the very end. In fact, there was one story line that was completely unnecessary except to use as blackmail at the very end. Other than that, it really served no purpose and really didn't belong in as much detail as it was presented. It only caused confusion and could have just as easily been referenced occasionally in other sections, which it also was, without being made its own chunk of the story.

Now, for the characters. I'm really not sure why this is considered a "Freud" series, since he plays a comparatively trivial role when put up against Younger, Littlemore and the remainder of the cast. He acts as a sounding board for Younger in his psychoanalysis of Miss Action after her alleged attack. As a character, he really doesn't do much, though his presence results in a mysterious sub-plot. Younger really is the star of the show, working with Miss Action to regain her memory, helping the police, parading around society, falling in love, debating Shakespeare and psychology (usually together). Jung is another character I could have done without. Didn't really do anything except be a jerk and make Freud seem more relevant. Detective Littlemore, on the other hand, definitely doesn't get enough credit in these pages until the very end, although it seems like an afterthought at that point. His character development was probably the best in the book, even if it was relatively simple compared to the others, but then again, he seems like a simple man, so maybe it's fitting.

I love that Littlemore was able to stick to his guns and solve the case, although, to be honest, I had to read some of those paragraphs a few times to figure out where exactly he was going with some of it. The solution was a convoluted mess and worked with the choppiness of the novel itself but wasn't exactly reader friendly. My biggest recommendation is not to read the final few chapters if you're not mentally awake enough to do so because it will result in confusion and several re-readings.

Overall a good book. Not sure why it really tickled my fancy like it did, but I'd definitely recommend it.

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