An expertly told psychological sci-fi tale, with an emphasis on cutting-edge medical tech.
After a life of depression and addiction, Dr. David Sternn undergoes an innovative brain procedure that seems to be an almost miraculous cure in Angres’ (Positive Sobriety, 2012) sci-fi novel.
The novel quickly pulls readers into Sternn’s world via a therapy session centered on the doctor’s suicidal thoughts, bringing them deep into his fragile psyche. Sternn’s self-centered cynicism, existential ruminations, and horror at interacting with people and the world at large may remind some readers at times of characters in Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1938 novel Nausea. The author reveals Sternn’s history through flashbacks from his boyhood as the son of Holocaust survivors, through his college drug use, medical education in Mexico, love life and work as an emergency room physician. This technique allows for the smooth insertion of technical and medical details, as Sternn undergoes a procedure called deep brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted in his brain to alleviate his symptoms and alter his feelings. The electrodes’ effects can be fine-tuned by using two devices—one controlled by Sternn and another, more powerful one by his psychiatrist. Sternn soon starts to believe that the psychologist is manipulating him. Throughout, the author also drops hints about a man named Umberto Waller, who plays a key part in Sternn’s story. As the narrative progresses, readers see all facets of the main character, who is by turns intelligent, professional, cunning and hopeless, with an outsize ability to rationalize. Although the end is a surprise, it’s wholly in character. Angres, a recovering addict and an addiction psychiatrist, is spot-on in his descriptions of medical procedures and technologies and the slippery emotional states of depressives and addicts. He’s also in tune with the mindsets of people on both sides of the psychiatrist’s desk.
An expertly told psychological sci-fi tale, with an emphasis on cutting-edge medical tech.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1477570937
Page Count: 276
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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