Jan. 17: The Double Bind

I learned in a poetry class in college that one should never use the word “interesting” to describe poetry—it’s simply too vague and says too little. That probably applies to critiques of most writing, I’d guess. So I’m pretty much speechless right now.

Because, um, wow.

Last night I started reading The Double Bind, by Chris Bohjalian, and I just finished it a few minutes ago. Except for a long nap and a couple of Facebook breaks throughout the day, I think I read the whole ding-dong* day long. I can think of very few books I’ve read recently that have been as un-put-down-able as this one was.

Oh, I thought of another word: “fascinating.” The book was definitely fascinating.

I’m leery of saying much more about the story because I don’t want to ruin anything if you haven’t yet read it, and I hope you will read it because I want to talk to someone about it**. I sure wish I had the ability to weave a story like Bohjalian has done here, though—he’s got an incredible gift. The Double Bind’s description offered by Amazon goes like this:

Best known for the provocative and powerful novel, Midwives (an Oprah Book Club® Selection), Chris Bohjalian writes beautiful and riveting fiction featuring what the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed “ordinary people in heartbreaking circumstances behaving with grace and dignity.” In his new novel, The Double Bind, a literary thriller with references to (and including characters from) The Great Gatsby, Bohjalian takes readers on a haunting journey through one woman's obsession with uncovering a dark secret.

I read Midwives last year and while it was well-written and I had no trouble getting through it, I wasn’t exactly enthralled by the subject matter (shocking revelation: it was about a midwife). Sure, it was powerful, but “provocative” is stretching it, if you ask me. The Double Bind was a different kind of thing altogether, though—a thriller that, while not necessarily action-packed, kept my attention easily all day long. And now that I’m done with it, I’m trying to figure out how I’m supposed to stop thinking about the story long enough to be able to fall asleep tonight.

Yes, I guess “fascinating” is the most accurate one-word summary of The Double Bind I can come up with on my own, or at least without the help of a thesaurus. I recommend this book with all my thumbs.

*Slight apology to Random Sunshine™ for stealing her lingo. But just a slight one.
**Hawaii Laura, we have GOT to get that Trans-Pacific Book Club going!