I am attracted to books about psychiatrists, possibly
because the blurred borders that are often crossed in these novels make for a titilating read. CHANCE by Kem Nunn is an excellent example of a shrink crossing the line, wrestling with impropriety and facing treacherous consequences.
"You never know what you're capable of until you find out what your capable of " is a message of the book. Every character is an "agent of chaos". According to a blog reader, CHANCE is definitely a provocative, twisty read highlighted by an amoral main character. (The shrink, of course)
Here's an excerpt from a NY Times Review.....
The tribulations (and they are legion) visited on the good doctor in the tumultuous course of "Chance" are, virtually without exception, consequences of a midlife predilection for rash, ill-considered, idea-free life decisions.
Probably the worst of these is his impulse — it doesn't really deserve to be called a decision — to bed one of his patients, an alluring teacher named Jaclyn Blackstone. That this affair is unprofessional and completely unethical would be bad enough. But there's worse.
Jaclyn is on the run from an abusive husband, who happens to be a ruthless and dangerously well-connected police detective: not a man you'd want for an enemy. And she is, besides, apparently suffering from multiple personality disorder..
But this book isn't a tragic noir like "Vertigo" or "Out of the Past," whose cunning femme fatale sometimes brings to mind. It's a farce, of an unusually violent and dark-spirited kind.
By the time CHANCE is over, the hero has committed (or caused) several crimes, including murder, and has undergone any number of gross indignities, including a very nasty sexually transmitted disease, all in the hapless attempt to spare himself the worst consequences of his own desperate cluelessness...........
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times have listed CHANCE by Kem Nunn in their NEW AND NOTABLE Columns
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This one does sound compelling. I find stories of professionals who do things that are wildly reckless and ill conceived believable as such things happen somewhat frequently in the real world.
ReplyDeleteSo true...and it makes for great characters in books....this one is on the way to the best seller list...Also who doesn't love to read about flawed people crossing the line?..........
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