Book Review: The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
Jed Rubenfeld is a modern-day Renaissance man. A professor of law at Yale University who has also taught at Stanford and Duke, he is an expert on constitutional law, privacy and the First Amendment. He studied theatre and Shakespeare at Julliard and wrote a thesis on Sigmund Freud during his senior undergraduate year at Princeton. He is also the author of six books, two of which are novels. It seems as though there’s nothing he can’t do. If I didn’t admire him so much, I’d be horribly jealous. (Well, maybe I can do both at the same time.)
The Interpretation of Murder was his first novel. It’s a very intricate weaving of true events and characters with fictional events and characters. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Sandor Ferenczi, Ernest Jones, Abraham Brill – all real life figures in the early 1900s movement of psychoanalysis, which was new, controversial and in competition with neurology – mingle with the fictional Elizabeth Riverford, Dr Stratham Younger, Nora Acton, George and Clara Banwell, Coroner Hugel and Detective Littlemore. There’s a miniature essay at the end of the book clearly outlining what’s real and what’s not and the artistic licence taken, which is a good thing because the blending of them is seamless.
When Elizabeth Riverford is murdered in an apartment at the exclusive Balmoral building in New York, Coroner Hugel and Detective Littlemore are assigned to investigate the case. On the same night as her death, Dr Stratham Younger meets Dr Sigmund Freud as he steps off the George Washington steamship for what is his first (and turns out to be his last) trip to the US. Dr Freud is there to advance the cause of psychoanalysis through a series of university lectures and Dr Younger is one of his American devotees.
Later the same week, Nora Acton is apparently targeted by Elizabeth Riverford’s killer but survives when the murderer is disturbed. Miss Acton is unable to remember who attacked her and has lost her voice to boot. When Dr Younger hears about the case at a society event, he volunteers Dr Freud’s talents in order to help the debutante recover both her memories and her ability to speak. Knowing he will be in the country a short time and that recovery could take a while, Dr Freud appoints Dr Younger to perform the psychoanalysis.
Coroner Hugel determines conclusively that whoever killed Elizabeth Riverford is the same person who attacked Nora Acton and when, after a few sessions With Dr Younger, she identifies George Banwell as her assailant, it seems like case closed. Except for one thing. George Banwell, a wealthy property developer married to Miss Acton’s best friend, has an airtight alibi for the time of Elizabeth Riverford’s murder. He was dining outside of the city with New York Mayor, George McClellan. It’s a head scratcher. And when Miss Riverford’s body goes missing from the morgue, it becomes difficult to prove there ever was a murder, let alone a murderer.
It’s not a straightforward murder mystery. Jed Rubenfeld, through his main character of Dr Stratham Younger, delves into the real life history of the tumultuous relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the true meaning of “to be or not to be” in Hamlet and alternative theories of what the Oedipus complex actually means. It’s mostly superfluous to the plot and while I found it fascinating, I can understand that some might not.
In the end, the plot turns out to be a little bit convoluted but it almost doesn’t matter. The writing is wonderful and the research impeccable. New York just after the turn of the twentieth century is a character all on its own, beautifully portrayed and perfectly used. Along with society matriarchs, rebellious daughters, immoral fathers, psychotic psychiatrists, corrupt officials, madams and prostitutes with hearts of gold, and determined discoverers of the truth, it all makes for an intriguing set of circumstances. Because even the fictional people feel real.
It took me a while to read this book but unlike some others that seem to drag on and on, I really didn’t mind. I could have happily spent a lot longer engrossed in its pages. And I imagine that it’s the sort of book that you could get more and more out of on second and subsequent readings and also the kind of book that different people could take different things from. I don’t know that it’s destined to become a classic but it sure was enjoyable while it lasted.
4 stars
*First published on Goodreads 3 June 2017
