(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

This is an author I first discovered believe it or not through a random airport buy a number of years ago, when I picked up her racily-covered 2006 Exposure during a boring layover and ended up really enjoying it, albeit in a "high-class Judith Krantz" kind of way. And so when I came across her 2005 melodrama Envy at my local library a few weeks ago, itself a New York Times Notable Book that year, I decided to pick it up too; and once again, I'm ultimately glad I did, although still argue that it's better thought of as the high end of semi-trashy mainstream fiction than the low end of literary fiction. It's essentially two stories at once, a highbrow and lowbrow one that connect in various fascinating ways -- it's simultaneously a Prince of Tides style psychological examination of the various themes behind various Greek over-the-top dramas, as seen through an actual psychiatrist experiencing family problems and seeing an "meta-psychiatrist" for therapy, while also being a legitimate playing-out of an actual over-the-top Greek melodrama in this man's life, ridiculously outrageous concepts that would usually be dismissed as soap-operaish silliness if not so expertly woven together with the "brainy" part of the story. It's best to leave as much of this plot as possible a secret before reading, which is partly why I wanted to write only a short review of it today; but needless to say, keep your eye out on how the things the main character discusses among family members and his therapist so weirdly relate to some of the bizarre turns his actual life takes throughout the novel. An excellent airport or beach read; in fact, I encourage you to look at Harrison's entire ouevre in general on those terms. ( )

Fascinating! Really enjoyed the book! ( )

I seemed to be one step ahead of the story all the way through, the ending was very flat. ( )

Things take a very bizarre turn about halfway through this book. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The main character is a very over-analytical shrink and it can't be easy to have that kind of personality with the stuff he goes through in this book. Sometimes it feels like the author has thrown in everything possible. Marital trouble! Dead children! Estranged twins! Paternity tests! But it all ends up holding together quite well.

Fascinating sexual-psychological character study and semi-suspense. One of the more interesting books I've read so far this year. ( )

Envy: A Novel by Kathryn Harrison (2006)