Identify a book
November 4, 2005 7:46 PM Subscribe
Help me identify a book. Several years ago I read a well-crafted thriller. It was a murder (well, kind of) mystery and the protagonist had Tourette's syndrome.
The story linked Tourette's to the Norse Berserker stories of warriors who fought in a crazed state. Besides that, I believe it was the author's second novel. Help me identify the author as I'm sure he's published since and I'm in dire need of a good read.
The story linked Tourette's to the Norse Berserker stories of warriors who fought in a crazed state. Besides that, I believe it was the author's second novel. Help me identify the author as I'm sure he's published since and I'm in dire need of a good read.
It's almost certainly Motherless Brooklyn, but that wasn't Lethem's second novel; he had written a number before that.
Great book. Amnesia has always been a staple mental disorder of noir protagonists -- Lethem also collected and edited a Vintage anthology on amnesia fiction -- but around the time that Motherless Brooklyn came out, a whole bunch of noir starring a protagonist with some sort of severe mental disability popped up, Memento being the prime example. Not sure what it is about the zeitgeist that led to it. Motherless Brooklyn is the best of the bunch. But definitely get the amnesia anthology!
posted by painquale at 7:54 PM on November 4, 2005
Great book. Amnesia has always been a staple mental disorder of noir protagonists -- Lethem also collected and edited a Vintage anthology on amnesia fiction -- but around the time that Motherless Brooklyn came out, a whole bunch of noir starring a protagonist with some sort of severe mental disability popped up, Memento being the prime example. Not sure what it is about the zeitgeist that led to it. Motherless Brooklyn is the best of the bunch. But definitely get the amnesia anthology!
posted by painquale at 7:54 PM on November 4, 2005
Lethem is very good. Girl in Landscape is disturbing.
posted by signal at 8:11 PM on November 4, 2005
posted by signal at 8:11 PM on November 4, 2005
Tried to find a different book that Motherless Brooklyn but that's the only one of its kind, it seems. Review found here.
posted by vanoakenfold at 8:13 PM on November 4, 2005
posted by vanoakenfold at 8:13 PM on November 4, 2005
Response by poster: Wow. It wasn't Motherless Brooklyn but I've just added it to my reading list.
posted by TorontoSandy at 8:40 PM on November 4, 2005
posted by TorontoSandy at 8:40 PM on November 4, 2005
Best answer: Skull Session, by Daniel Hecht.
Paul Skoglund is a very bright guy, but he suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that gives him wild urges and causes him to make strange gestures and say inappropriate things... But when he arrives at the remote hilltop mansion, he finds a scene of almost superhuman destruction: a violence mirrored by a series of disappearances and grisly deaths in the area.
... What most people don’t know – and probably don’t want to believe – is that Skull Session is based on events that actually happened to me... Everyone has read those little snippets in newspapers now and again: “Panicked Mom Lifts Car Off Trapped Children,” and the like. In fact, reports of this rare and fleeting phenomenon go far back in history and exist in every culture, perhaps most famously in the exploits of the Viking berserker warriors, who could enter a state of superpowered, killing frenzy.
posted by dhartung at 9:18 PM on November 4, 2005
Paul Skoglund is a very bright guy, but he suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that gives him wild urges and causes him to make strange gestures and say inappropriate things... But when he arrives at the remote hilltop mansion, he finds a scene of almost superhuman destruction: a violence mirrored by a series of disappearances and grisly deaths in the area.
... What most people don’t know – and probably don’t want to believe – is that Skull Session is based on events that actually happened to me... Everyone has read those little snippets in newspapers now and again: “Panicked Mom Lifts Car Off Trapped Children,” and the like. In fact, reports of this rare and fleeting phenomenon go far back in history and exist in every culture, perhaps most famously in the exploits of the Viking berserker warriors, who could enter a state of superpowered, killing frenzy.
posted by dhartung at 9:18 PM on November 4, 2005
Response by poster: Thank you, the author was Daniel Hecht. Good call.
posted by TorontoSandy at 9:32 PM on November 4, 2005
posted by TorontoSandy at 9:32 PM on November 4, 2005
Two different mystery novels in which the protagonist has Tourette's? Wow. It's a whole new genre!
posted by painquale at 1:14 AM on November 5, 2005
posted by painquale at 1:14 AM on November 5, 2005
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posted by dlugoczaj at 7:48 PM on November 4, 2005