The crimes of psychiatry are legion, but they can mostly be attributed to a single cause: the idea that the therapist knows more than the patient.— A. Collins Braithwaite, Untherapy I have been fascinated by psychiatric case studies since I came across a copy of Robert Lindner’s The Fifty-Minute Hour thirty-odd years ago. ‘I am … Continue reading The Strange Cases of Maeder and Braithwaite
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La Femme de Gilles / Madeleine Bourdouxhe
Madeleine Bourdouxhe’s novel opens with her protagonist, Elisa, awaiting her husband’s return from work. As she lays the table for the evening meal, she is transfixed, ‘giddy with tenderness’: ‘Overcome with the thought of his return her body, drowning in sweetness, melting with languor, loses all its strength.’ As the title suggests, Elisa is a … Continue reading La Femme de Gilles / Madeleine Bourdouxhe
Strike Out Where Not Applicable / Nicolas Freeling
Strike Out Where Not Applicable finds Van der Valk newly installed as Commissioner of Police in the provincial town of Lisse, centre of the tulip growing region. The countryside is, ‘Nothing to look at. Flat like all of Holland.’ And the town? Walls white; painted, plastered, roughcast. Metal window-frames painted grey. Huge windows washed and … Continue reading Strike Out Where Not Applicable / Nicolas Freeling
Double Barrel / Nicolas Freeling
Van der Valk is dispatched to the small town of Zwinderen in the north-east of Holland, where a series of poison pen letters have been sent to residents and two women have committed suicide. The local police are (of course) baffled. Freeling’s Amsterdam inspector is a close cousin of Simenon’s Maigret. Both detectives like to … Continue reading Double Barrel / Nicolas Freeling
Café Céleste / Françoise Mallet-Joris
Café Céleste tells the story of the intertwined lives of the inhabitants of a shabby Montparnasse apartment block above the eponymous bar. Among these characters are the ‘malodorous’ Mme Prêtre, the all seeing concierge who dreams of setting up her daughter as the lover of a rich man and living off the proceeds; Dr Fisher, … Continue reading Café Céleste / Françoise Mallet-Joris
House of Lies / Françoise Mallet-Joris
The story and setting of Françoise Mallet-Joris’ House of Lies might have come straight out of a Simenon novel. The narrative concerns a wealthy brewer, Klaes van Baarnheim and his disagreeable, scheming relatives. Unbeknown to van Baarnheim, he has not long to live and his extended family bicker over the fate of his fortune and … Continue reading House of Lies / Françoise Mallet-Joris
The Unfortunates / B.S. Johnson
On the inside lid of the box which contains the unbound chapters of BS Johnson’s The Unfortunates is the following note: If readers prefer not to accept the random order in which they receive the novel, they may re-arrange the sections into any other random order before reading. So what do you do? You are … Continue reading The Unfortunates / B.S. Johnson
An American Romance / Hans Koningsberger
I picked up a copy of Hans Koningsberger’s An American Romance in a second-hand bookshop purely on the strength of its cover. I had never heard of Hans Koningsberger. I read the book, liked it and googled the author. He was born in Amsterdam in 1921and moved to the USA in 1951, later shortening his … Continue reading An American Romance / Hans Koningsberger
Graeme Macrae Burnet 