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The Double Bind

by Chris Bohjalian (Goodreads Author)

3.54 · rating details · 9,886 ratings · 2,235 reviews

When Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography, spending all her free time at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies, Laure...more

Paperback, 388 pages

Published February 12th 2008 by Vintage Books USA (first published January 1st 2007)

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Oct 07, 2011

Jessica rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I really wanted to like this book, as I found the premise fascinating. The execution, though, was so weak that it was almost unbearable to force my way through the entire book.

The story centers on Laurel, who survived a brutal attack as a young college student. She graduates from college, dates older men, and works at a homeless shelter, where she comes across a man named Bobbie, who carries with him a mysterious box of photographs. Laurel becomes obsessed with the photographs and wi...moreI really wanted to like this book, as I found the premise fascinating. The execution, though, was so weak that it was almost unbearable to force my way through the entire book.

The story centers on Laurel, who survived a brutal attack as a young college student. She graduates from college, dates older men, and works at a homeless shelter, where she comes across a man named Bobbie, who carries with him a mysterious box of photographs. Laurel becomes obsessed with the photographs and with figuring out where Bobbie came from and how he ended up in her homeless shelter.

Bohjalian's exposition is dreadful. It frustrated me that he gave Laurel a mystery to solve, but gave the reader the answer on the very first page of the first chapter. It's more enticing if the reader is trying to solve the mystery alongside the characters, more clever to dangle the hints in front of us to see if we catch on to them.

The character development was just as weak as the exposition. The book jacket told me that Laurel was so traumatized by her almost-rape that she withdrew from society and began working at the homeless shelter as a means of dealing with it. However, this wasn't a part of the story at all, outside of the prologue, where it was briefly touched on in the form of a few sentences. As the story goes on, Laurel barely seems to be affected by the attack at all, except when Bohjalian explicitly states that she doesn't like having sex in the missionary position because it makes her think of her attackers and that she doesn't like to be in the state of Vermont on the anniversary of the attack.

None of the secondary characters had any depth whatsoever. Laurel's roommate, smitten neighbor, much older boyfriend, and shelter coworkers were all flat and acted without motivation or reason.

The biggest weakness in this book, though, is the supposed twist ending that much of the events, (view spoiler)

This book was such a terrible letdown, poorly structured and written with ho-hum prose. The entire time I was reading it, all I could think about was how it should have been written instead. (less)

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Feb 06, 2008

Carolyn added it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Notice there are no stars associated with this review. If only there was a choice for black hole. This book was dreadful. Horrible. Awful. A few years ago I read his "Midwives", which I really liked, so I thought I'd like this too. Wrong! It is billed as a "literary thriller". Oh, really? I swear, the suspense and thrills are more elegantly crafted in an average episode of Scooby Doo than in this piece of crap book. And literary?? I think it was poorly written. It drov...moreNotice there are no stars associated with this review. If only there was a choice for black hole. This book was dreadful. Horrible. Awful. A few years ago I read his "Midwives", which I really liked, so I thought I'd like this too. Wrong! It is billed as a "literary thriller". Oh, really? I swear, the suspense and thrills are more elegantly crafted in an average episode of Scooby Doo than in this piece of crap book. And literary?? I think it was poorly written. It drove me to distraction the way the author avoided writing "she", but instead referred to people as thier occupation. I wonder how many times "the social worker" appeared in the book. Way too many. This book has gotten such good reviews; I just don't understand it. The main character is a social worker who works at a homeless shelter. One of the former clients dies and in his possession are photographs and Laurel (the social worker) takes an interest in them. The interest promptly turns to obsession. The photos are of many subjects (famous people, etc), but Laurel recognizes a house from her hometown in one and guess what? It's the house from The Great Gatsby, and the people in the picture are the children of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Laurel immediately and irrationally assumes/insists that the boy in the picture is the dead homeless man and she sets out to prove it and find out how he ended up homeless and alone. At first I thought bringing in characters from The Great Gatsby was an annoying plot device. And very lazy. Like dude, make up you own characters. It made no sense why the author chose to use those people and their story. And WHY was Laurel acting so crazy and pursuing this even though she had NOTHING to back up her assumptions. Oh, I forgot - When Laurel was in college she was attacked while riding her bike and saved from certain rape at the last possible moment, so she's sill living with the aftereffects of that (even though it seems like she goes overboard about it at times). So we've got this chick acting all nuts and we've got The Great Gatsby crap going on, and I DO NOT CARE about the story or the characters. SPOILER ALERT - So why is Laurel acting like a loon? Oh, what, didn't the author bother to TELL us before the last chapter? It's because she IS crazy, silly. And she didn't ALMOST get raped and brutalized a few years ago. She really WAS raped and mutilated and left for dead. So see? There's a REASON she's acting so nutty. (incidentally, the exposition of the truth of her attack was presented very clumsily and I was offended reading about it.) Oh, and the reason that the Gatsby characters were in the book? It was all in Laurel's imagination. Those people aren't REAL, you fool! Now why were you thinking they were actual characters in the book you just read?? I'm getting mad again just thinking about this book. Boy, did I hate it. There's more to hate, but I guess I should wrap this up. Ok, there's one more reason I hated it, and it was because of the reader on the audiobook version. I listened to another book that Susan Denaker read, and she kind of annoyed me, but I got through it ok. This time, she bugged the hell out of me. The combo of the bad book and her voice created the perfect storm of hate. Her voice is very smooth and sounds well-trained and full and I wouldn't be surprised if she wins awards for it. But after a while it comes off as haughty and strident and she over-dramatizes and I don't think I will ever be able to listen to her again. Ever. Well, do you get the idea that I did NOT have a good experience with this book? I felt manipulated and used by the end, and the whole time I was irritated because things just didn't add up. The way it was all wrapped up at the end was rushed and seemed like an afterthought. Honestly, I do not understand why anybody liked it. Maybe if I had read it instead of listened to it I wouldn't have hated it so much, but I still don't think I would have liked it. Soooo - I have spent much more time and energy thinking about this bad book than I have ever spent on my favorite books. Why is that? I want to warn you! On the other hand I want you to read it and agree with me. On the other other hand I want you to read it and like it so I can hold you in contempt. Not really. Please, I beg you, even if you read it and do like it, I don't want to know!! Ok, I'm done. (less)

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May 04, 2008

Jonna Rubin rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: No one. Ever.

Offensively bad. Poorly written and/or poorly edited -- likely both -- oh dear crap, it was awful. Overwritten. Stupid. Carelessly written. Used the word "dowager" at least five hundred times -- so much that I laughed out loud and wished I'd made a drinking game of it. And it was UNNECESSARY. Who edited this? Who allowed "epoxied" to stand in for "glued" three times on three consecutive pages in totally needless contexts? Who greenlighted "dowager" so many...moreOffensively bad. Poorly written and/or poorly edited -- likely both -- oh dear crap, it was awful. Overwritten. Stupid. Carelessly written. Used the word "dowager" at least five hundred times -- so much that I laughed out loud and wished I'd made a drinking game of it. And it was UNNECESSARY. Who edited this? Who allowed "epoxied" to stand in for "glued" three times on three consecutive pages in totally needless contexts? Who greenlighted "dowager" so many damn times? Who decided to refer to Laurel as "the social worker" in such a manner that it became absurdly confusing as to who THE HELL he was referring to?

No, really: I want to know who edited this. Has Chris Bohjalian reached such great heights that he doesn't NEED an editor? Because someone should tell him that he does. Someone should also have told him that he wrote better books than this in the past, and that maybe he should have trashed it and started over again at the drawing board.

The plot -- if you can call it that -- was so incredibly inane, the character(s) so unlikable, that I honestly didn't give a rip about what was happening. I don't even care enough to summarize it for you, because it would be laughable, and explains why the book description didn't REMOTELY match what the story was about. Like, at all.

I slogged forward because I felt an obligation to make it through to the "twist" -- which I figured out at a stupidly early time, such was the sad transparency of what he'd written -- the whole time thinking, this better be one hell of a twist (perhaps one that did my laundry for me and served me crackers and cheese in bed) for me to feel AT ALL decent about having suffered through this piece of utter crap. (DOWAGER. JESUS CHRIST HE SAID IT A THOUSAND TIMES. EPOXIED. I EPOXIED MY FIST TO MY FACE OUT OF FRUSTRATION ABOUT THE DOWAGER USAGE. HOW IS THAT, CHRIS? SOUND GOOD? BECAUSE I DID.)

I am so distraught that I slogged through this that I ... I can't even articulate it without being a jerk, as I just finished it.

RUN. RUN AWAY. Awful. Awful awful awful. (less)

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Sep 01, 2008

Debbie Petersen rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I figured out the supposed "twist" as soon as I read the psychiatrist's notes. The effort taken to write them as genderless came off as odd and clunky.

The whole thing came off to me as disjointed and in need of editing. There were some glaring mistakes--a child eating a caramel apple is described as having made a mess with it and it being red like blood all over her face and hands...um, caramel is BROWN. Everyone is described, even right in the middle of dialogue where we ...moreI figured out the supposed "twist" as soon as I read the psychiatrist's notes. The effort taken to write them as genderless came off as odd and clunky.

The whole thing came off to me as disjointed and in need of editing. There were some glaring mistakes--a child eating a caramel apple is described as having made a mess with it and it being red like blood all over her face and hands...um, caramel is BROWN. Everyone is described, even right in the middle of dialogue where we know all of their names, by their occupation: The waitress said blah blah blah. Blah blah blah, said the young social worker. And my favorite word of all (and apparently the author's as well) DOWAGER. Who has used that word in the last century? I was jolted out of the story each time.

An 11 year old child wonders what is really going on with Laurel (AKA The Social Worker) since she has noticed the "glimpses of darkness behind the veil," or some such nonsense. As the mother of an actual 11 year old, I can assure you that one would only notice a dark veil if the X Box is in use behind it. They could care less about the moody secrets of adults around them, except for how it affects them directly, such as if the adult is ordering pizza or is about to demand that chores or homework be finished. None of the characters in the book seem true to themselves, if that makes any sense. In the end I found I was indifferent to all of them.

The sad thing is, the premise was promising...a volunteer at a homeless shelter finds a box of photographs that belonged to a recently deceased resident. While looking through them, she comes upon a photograph of a young girl on a bike in a familiar landscape, and realizes it is a photograph of herself on the very day she was attacked and raped years before.

I could go on and on about the many ways this book grated on my nerves, but here are a few: Robert Buchanan sees a picture of a fictional housewife and decides to change his name to "Bobbie Crocker." Why the feminine spelling "Bobbie" instead of the masculine "Bobby?" Why was the homeless shelter repeatedly referred to as the acronym BEDS as if that was the actual name? I cringed every time I came across "BEDS." *cringing now*

Anyway, back to the name change. The newly minted Bobbie Crocker joins the army. The paragraph describing this is so poorly written that I will simply copy it here from page 295:

If the Army had any doubts about the mental health of a recruit whose moniker must have reminded them of a cake mix, they weren't sufficient to prevent them from allowing him to wade ashore at Omaha Beach in one of the very first waves behind the demolition teams. Bobbie would fight that year and into the next in France and Belgium and Germany, somehow escaping the war unscathed. Physically, anyway. He had an affair with a French woman who was in many ways even more scarred than he was, given how much of her family had died in the first German offensive in May 1940 and then fighting in North Africa in 1943. She lost two brothers, a cousin, and her father. He wanted to bring her back with him to the United States, but she wouldn't leave her family--the living and the dead.

The Army should have had doubts about his mental health because his last name was Crocker? Can you say run on sentence? Who edited this?

Somehow I resisted throwing the book against the wall at this point. I should not have fought the urge. Limping along to the most unbelievable, contrived and trite ending, the reader finds that *SURPRISE!* Laurel is the one in the psychiatrist's chair, and that most of the characters were invented by her crazed mind! Imagine that. Of course, the fact that all of the made-up characters had scenes without Laurel involved, and their own thoughts, actions and opinions make that plot twist ludicrous...but what did you expect from a book that takes the characters of The Great Gatsby and pretends they are real people? Until the end, anyway. Laurel is crazy! That's why she thinks the Gatsbys were her neighbors! Get the big twist there? *gag*

(less)

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Jul 13, 2007

Jaime rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: general_fiction, 2007

The first thing I did before I started this book was head to Wikipedia and read a summary of The Great Gatsby, since it’s been 12+ years since I read it, and it’s really an integral part of this book. I recommend that to anyone who picks this up.

I often start thinking about what I’m going to say about a book before I finish it. As I neared the end of this, my thoughts were “this wasn’t as good as Midwives or Water Witches“. Then, Bohjalian gives you a very M. Night Shyamalan-esque tw...more

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Dec 11, 2008

Bonnie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: recommended, fiction, reviewed-books

Although I am familiar with Chris Bohjalian, the title caught my eye. I was told (by an editor who recently read about 80 pages of my novel--in-progress), that the mother of my POV character was a classic case of the Double Bind personality. I had not heard of this before. (Google it to discover what it is -- or read this book!) In part, the editor was correct, but, of course, not having read the whole book, she couldn't make a definite assessment. It was helpful, though. As was this book -- in ...more

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Jul 13, 2008

Kate rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I stayed interested throughout which says something. But it did get pretty repetitive at times. Maybe this is necessary for a book that's told from the perspective of a delusional person?

I am thankful that I watched The Great Gatsby recently otherwise I would've been lost on all the references and would've given up. And the photographs were very cool.

I am usually suspicious of male writers who try to write from women's perspectives. Especially because Bohjalian is a...more

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Jun 24, 2008

Stacey rated it

· review of another edition

This is a very creative premise but egregiously flawed. Most of this book chronicles an investigation that the main character is conducting that links an old box of photos with a homeless man, her own troubled past, and The Great Gatsby. She was a lot more interested in where this all was leading than I was. I was sort of lazily interested in the Gatsby thread because I just read it, but the rest of it was so repetitive and tiresome I could only read 5-10 pages at a time. I did not like the ...more

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Mar 15, 2008

Maggi rated it

· review of another edition

This is the sixth book of Chris Bohjalian I have read, and I found the others to be quite good. Perhaps his prose wasn't as gorgeous as some writers, but his stories were gripping, and I turned the pages quickly, (which, if you think about it, is the main reason we want to read a book!). Tran-sister Radio was fascinating and sensitive. I read The Law of Similars in a weekend. Before You Know Kindness was complex and compelling. But despite the pull of the mysteriously wonderful photos that seem ...more

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Dec 15, 2007

Valerie rated it

· review of another edition

I read this book on the recommendation of a friend, and had no idea that there was a surprise twist at the end. As a mystery, I didn't feel it was very compelling, but aside from that the story was definitely interesting enough to keep me engaged. A quick refresher of The Great Gatsby on Wikipedia is a good idea if you read this book, as its characters appear in The Double Bind as well.

I thought that they were well-integrated into the book, and it was definitely an innovative idea on...more

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Oct 14, 2007

Jo Ann marked it as to-read · review of another edition

REWVIEW:
Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in Before You Know Kindness, he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.

Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction...more

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Aug 20, 2007

Darlene rated it

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Shelves: fiction

Not at all the book I thought I was getting. Far darker and more disturbing a story than the cover copy lead me to believe. I'm a fan of The Great Gatsby. I'm a fan of historical photography. I'm interested in mysteries.

I'm not interested in the details of women being brutalized over and over -- either physically or emotionally. I'm willing to believe it was unintentional on Bohjalian's part, but I couldn't help taking the thematic misogynistic overtones a little too personall...more

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Jun 16, 2008

Jackie rated it

Shelves: adult-fiction, tuesday-night-book-club, violence, mental-illness

Laurel, a young social worker in Vermont, has clearly been traumatized by a brutal and sadistic act of violence committed against her during her sophomore year in college. This story reminds the reader of the powerful ability of the mind to alter life's horrific events to allow a person to live day-to-day with nightmarish acts. Laurel is given photos taken by a homeless man and manipulates their meaning and subjects to meld and intertwine fiction and fact in more ways than one. A fictionalized J...more

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Feb 24, 2008

Neelu Eldurkar rated it

· review of another edition

What a twist at the end! It certainly saddened me to see teh degradation of the main character's mental health. You really grow to love her for being so compassionate to other human beings, especially the homeless and mentally ill. Then to see that she was also going down that road and to also learn that she suffered such a horrid enounter. So horrible that she blocked the reality of it from her self. There is still a lot of confusion in my head as to what was real and what was in her imagi...more

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Aug 05, 2008

Nick rated it

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Shelves: contemporary

If you were to write a book with the same themes as The Great Gatsby, but set it today, what would it look like? What archetypes would you pick to represent the lost, lonely people? The man who tries to live the American dream but at the end finds himself staring at the light he can never reach? The woman who tells herself stories about who she is and how she got where she was only to help avoid the truth of the horror of her life? The death of the American Dream, and its salvation in the or...more

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Nov 14, 2007

Amy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: should-have-quit

There were moments where I thought this books was really stupid. The main character was so dramatic at times, the plot seemed like it was trying to be more than it was only b/c the author was making the main character make such a big deal out of minimal things.
Turns out there was a reason for that. You don't find out until the very end (which you can predict near the end). The entire thing is explained on the last pages because it has to be completely written out, otherwise it's a book...more

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Aug 22, 2007

Jane rated it

· review of another edition

I reached page 155 in this novel, and I have decided not to continue. The protagonist, Laurel, is not compelling; the writing is unnecessarily adjectivey; the use of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, from The Great Gatsby, as characters in this novel feels tricked up; and one of the puzzles -- the "true" identity of a deceased homeless man -- is solved early and too easily for this reader's taste.

I understand, from reading other reviews in Goodreads, that I'm passing up a twist endi...more

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Jul 04, 2010

Elizabeth rated it

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Shelves: fiction

Reviewing this book properly would necessitate revealing the plot and spoiling the author's skillful and unusual handling of character development, narrative design, and technique. I have not read this author before. He is apparently known for his sensitive and creative exploration of serious social issues through fiction, and this book would be consistent with that.

While she's in college, Laurel is brutally attacked while riding her bike on a wooded country road in Vermont. The story...more

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Sep 30, 2008

Tracy rated it

Recommends it for: Book Clubs, M. Night Shyamalan fans, Jodi Picoult fans

Shelves: own-it, fiction

I would highly recommend this book to all book clubbers out there, because after you read it, you just want to talk to someone else who's read it. Kind of like after seeing the movie the Sixth Sense. There is a prerequisite that comes with this novel and that is to read or re-read The Great Gatsby. This is a must in order to understand all the references and parallels with Fitzgerald's novel. Bohjalian brings the characters from The Great Gatsby to life.
From reading the other reviews of T...more

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Jun 07, 2008

Sally rated it

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Shelves: abandoned

Good, good, nice bedtime reading. Bohjalian is talented, yet he, like Coupeland, creeps me out in his affinity to write from a female protagonist point of view? Why is this necessary? I'm loving all the golden era pictures and narration, however. This book is not destined for the abandoned shelf. No siree bob, we have a keeper folks. It's just short of fantastic...and I've yet to be able to put my finger on why. Could it be the romancing of male violence towards women? Perhaps. Updates to...more

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Aug 19, 2008

Janean rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm torn between 2 and 3 stars, but after reading some other people's reviews, I'm going with the 2 because they brought up things that I didn't realize annoyed me until now.

I was excited to read this because of the twist I had heard about and I knew it had something to do with The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite novels.

Overall, I was disappointed.

As far as the twist, I think I caught it about 1/4 of the way through; I'm not bragging and I don't claim to...more

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Jun 01, 2008

Mike rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: those on vacation

Recommended to Mike by: My dealer at Barnes and Noble

Shelves: general-fiction, counseling

Because I loved "The Thirteenth Tale" my contact at Barnes and Noble was sure I would like this book by Bohjalian. He had heard the two books had many things in common. Unfortunately, they don't. Fortunately, I moderately liked this one for much different reasons. As others have written in their reviews, this book was not edited with any real sense of purpose or aid. It lacked for a skilled edit job here and there.

(This review contains no spoilers of any serious degree).
...moreBecause I loved "The Thirteenth Tale" my contact at Barnes and Noble was sure I would like this book by Bohjalian. He had heard the two books had many things in common. Unfortunately, they don't. Fortunately, I moderately liked this one for much different reasons. As others have written in their reviews, this book was not edited with any real sense of purpose or aid. It lacked for a skilled edit job here and there.

(This review contains no spoilers of any serious degree).

However, the author does something that I don't find very often: He cloaks the ending so completely that I had no idea what was coming until I stumbled on it. In fact, and this is a big nudge to anyone who is about to read it, don't just assume that the last few pages are footnotes or just acknowledgements. In there is the kernel of the story and it helps to make sense of the rest. It is worth getting to the end, as the ride has many bumps along the way and your mental capacity may not be up to it.

I recommend this book to be read on vacation where you can digest large clumps of it. That will make the action move faster. The characters are not as well defined as they usually are in novels of this magnitude, but the ending will clear up the reason for this.

Now to the few things I didn't like about the book. First, the plot moves too slowly and without as much conflict as there could and should have been. That is not true of the opening two chapters fortunately. I was hooked after them. But then, the book resembled a river that lazily spreads out after some fast and treacherous rapids. The entire way through, I kept waiting for more action or more insight, but neither came through.

Also, the author pricked one of my trial balloons: Using the third-person omnipotent from chapter to chapter. That, of course, is more acceptable than doing it in the same chapter, but it gets annoying because the reader is told things that a good writer would reveal through plot instead of through the thoughts of the characters. At least, that is how my brain would rather discover them. I can't imagine Tolkien, for instance, telling us about the dangers of "Old Man Willow" by giving us glimpses of Tom Bombadil's thought life. I'm not even sure I could follow Bombadil's thoughts.

Normally I finish a novel in a day or two. This took me two weeks because I didn't get swept along with it and just read a chapter every evening before bed.

Also, the writer uses profanity in such a way that shows he is not familiar with its usage and probably threw it in because the characters would have used it. It didn't add to the story.

My biggest excitement was the understanding that the writer had about homeless people and their struggle for personhood. That was worth the book.(less)

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Mar 16, 2008

Diane rated it

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Recommends it for: Lovers of syspense, intrigue, a gripping story

Recommended to Diane by: A Goodreads member's list

Whoa! This book grabbed me from the first page of the Prologue and kept me involved until - yes, I finished it bleary-eyed and wide awake in the wee small hours of the night trailing the same day I started reading it. It's mystery and suspense and a puzzle. The references to Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby stand alone, but I did reach for my old copy of The Great Gatsby and skim a couple of sections out of curiousity. The black & white photographs included in the story fit and seemed real, addin...more

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Feb 02, 2008

Anne rated it

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The Double Bind is a fascinating exploration of memory and mental-illness. The book opens with the main character Laurel's brutal attack while riding her bike on a deserted road. Years later, she works at a homeless shelter and meets a schizophrenic man, Bobbie Crocker, who has a collection of brilliant photographs. When Bobbie dies, Laurel finds herself obsessed with figuring out where the photographs came from and who the man behind the pictures was. In an interesting plot device Laurel happen...more

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Dec 31, 2007

Mary Isaac rated it

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Recommends it for: friends

Shelves: mary-beth-s-favorites

This novel is intriguing, heartbreaking and beautiful. Starting with a violent act, the story takes us through the life of the victim Lauren, a privileged young adult who has since dedicated her life to helping the homeless. After the death of a homeless man named Bobbie, Lauren's life intertwines with the descendants of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in present day.

Bobbies only known legacy is a box of secretive photographs and negatives. Lauren recognizes the homes in the photographs fr...more

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Mar 10, 2008

Cyndy rated it

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Not sure I liked it...one of those books that I liked, but was a bit disappointed in the way it was written. Not sure why.

The book is written well. It is the story of a girl who had something pretty horrible happen to her years before. In the present she is a social worker for homeless and she is given some pictures taken by a formerly homeless man who has passed away. She becomes obsessed by the pictures and the people the pictures may be of and decides it is her 'destiny' to find o...more

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Aug 08, 2008

Kori rated it

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chris bohjalian came to visit my midwifery seminar when i was a freshman in college, after we had read his book midwives, and ever since then i've been interested in reading more of his work. i really enjoyed midwives, and i found the caliber of his writing to be rather high, so i expected a lot of this book.

after i finished, i felt like the pay-off was definitely not worth the three hundred plus pages i blew through to get there. bohjalian seeks to blur the lines between past and ...more

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Sep 01, 2008

Hara rated it

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Shelves: fiction

I was totally blind-sided by this book. I am generally of fan of Bohjalian, who writes with great sensitivity about everyday, generally good people caught in extraordinary, ethically tricky situations. This novel, however, felt unpolished. Constructed in such a way as to surprise the reader, it did manage to surprise me. However, the characters lacked the depth that I expect from this author so that the story-line never felt believable. When the surprise arrived, it felt overly manufactured...more

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Jun 20, 2008

Marsha rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, novel

The Double Bind tells the story of a young woman trying to come to terms with an attack by 2 men while riding a bike on a country road. Years later, while working with the homeless, she comes across photos taken by a deceased client which starts a chain of events which leads to mysteries from both his and her pasts, or does it?

Here is the rub and my problem with this novel. The unfolding of the mystery is exciting and page turning but the ultimate conclusion comes out of left field....more

like 1 like

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Jun 05, 2008

Bree rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-08

Reading Chris Bojhalian is like watching daytime tv, it passes the time, might be moderately interesting, makes you wince a little sometimes and ultimately leaves you feeling slightly greenish afterwards. This book diverged from his usual tried-and-true structure of introducing emotionally complex EveryMen and EveryWomen who make a fatal mistake early on and struggle to repair things before their worlds go down the drain. I continued reading, and ultimately, finished feeling dissatisfied and res...more

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About Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian is the author of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers, Secrets of Eden, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, Before You Know Kindness, The Law of Similars, and Midwives.

His new novel, The Night Strangers, arrives on October 4, 2011. It's a ghost story inspired by a door in his basement and Sully Sullenberger's successful ditching of an Airbus in ...more

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