Die Versuchung des August Perlmann

by Brooks Hansen

Dr. August Perlman lives a well-regulated life. His Clinic for Suggestive Therapy is tremendously successful--mainly because he never takes on a patient he isn't sure he can cure. His personal life is remarkably free of muss and fuss, and he likes it that way; in fact, the only passion he truly surrenders to is classical music, particularly the works of the late composer Alexander Barrett. The year is 1906 and the field of psychotherapy is still in its infancy, struggling to establish itself as a real science and not the redheaded stepchild of supernatural bunkum. Indeed, Dr. Perlman is especially sensitive to anything that smacks of the mystical, so when a young girl he has only reluctantly accepted as a patient suddenly starts channeling the spirit of a long-dead divinity named Oona, he is not amused:

Perlman returned to his office. His medical journal was waiting there, opened to the page of notes he'd already begun. He wrote the time--11:30--but then he paused. His pen hesitated above the paper, as if to commit this evening's episode to ink were to lend it a credence it might not merit, and credence was the first step down many a wayward path.

The good doctor shakes off this brush with the supernatural and returns to his ordered ways, which includes a concert of music by Sibelius. While there, he is introduced to Helena Barrett, the sister of his idol, and finds himself simultaneously attracted by her beauty, intelligence, and wit and repelled by her obvious interest in spiritualism. His defenses against the unexpected already cracked, he is completely undone when a chance meeting between Helena and his patient leads him down a very wayward path, indeed. Soon Perlman is up to his neck in Theosophy, theatricals, and myths of the lost city of Atlantis--and battling his own unleashed desires even as he fights for the soul of his patient. Brooks Hansen's second novel is by turns humorous, suspenseful, and profound, a marvelous follow-up to The Chess Garden. --Margaret Prior

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery

333 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Brooks Hansen is an American novelist, screenwriter, and illustrator best known for his 1995 book The Chess Garden. He has also written one young adult's novel. He lives with his family in Carpinteria, California. He attended Harvard University and was the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005.

Reviews

[Michelle F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of science versus spiritualism, set in the early 1900's. Dr. August Perlman is a pioneering practitioner of 'suggestive therapy': using habits and associations with the aid of hypnotism to help patients take control of ailments and pain. He is not sure if he will be able to help Sophie, a severely dehydrated adolescent brought unconscious to his clinic. Early attempts to rouse her are unsuccessful, but some suggestions to her subconscious finally settle her down. It is not Sophie who awakens however, but Nina, who has brought along an imaginary friend; and they have a story to tell.

There are a lot of aspects to this story that appeal: Perlman is a complex character, with his atheism and his vices and his passionate devotion to musical experience. His new high-society acquaintance Madame Barrett is equally intriguing: she is assured and enigmatic, the sister of a deceased composer, a spiritualist with grief and gently scandalous suggestions in her past. The ruminations on music alone are deep and rambling, but there are many under-running threads of commentary too.

All of these interesting factors – presented with a solidly comfortable writing style – should make for a satisfying experience...but it doesn't quite get there. Something about cohesion, I think, and perhaps some confusing descriptions. The bits just don't stick together properly.

I was noticeably not engaged.
I was still passively entertained, though.

[Karyl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book so much. I have been fascinated by Victorian England, spiritualism, and classical music (with an emphasis on the Russians) for much of my adult life, and I figured this book would be right up my alley. However, though I devoured the first hundred pages within a short time, the rest of the novel began to drag. I found it so incredibly vague that I had a hard time following what was going on, and indeed, it made it difficult to even care.

I admit part of my problem may be that I somehow am in possession of an advance reader's edition. There are many places in the beginning with footnotes, and some footnotes aren't even complete. There's a feeling that the book is far from complete, which hopefully was resolved in the final edition, making the novel far more clear to its readers. I almost want to go to the library to check out a final edition to see if it reads better.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times, a fragile spiral of a shell, holding attention, but allowing a scrutable "dissection." I found myself both deeply involved and at a distance from the life of the doctor. Mr. Hansen's word choice is beautiful, and worth the read simply to roll them around the mind. His description of music by the doctor early in the book is as well-written a selection as I have ever come across. Hansen brings the story to an end both mysterious and predictable. His doctor leaves the story a different man, yet not too different. One can see that Mr. Hansen weaves his stories as a mental tapestry which he takes time to study and describe to us. The story is possibly not always as clear as we may wish, but reads as an oral tale, told with a cherishing tongue. Thanks, Brooks.

[Rod · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, especially since The Chess Garden was so sublime. Perlman's Ordeal at least held my interest enough for me to finish it, but it didn't stick with me the way The Chess Garden does to this day.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a weird story. It is set back in the early 1900's when hypnosis was beginning to be used in treatment. The book was somewhat hard to follow. I'm not sure I liked it. A little girl is brought in for treatment and she appears to be possessed.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hypnotist, spiritualist, and a schizophrenic explore music, incest, religious conflict, and the fall of a civilization. Fire and water, sun and moon, trances and rude awakenings abound. In Hanson's hands it mostly works.

[Ken Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you like reading about someone listening to classical music, or wordy seances, this is your book.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Hansen may take responsibility for the fate of his characters, but the meaning of those fates is, finally, ours to determine. When the performance is over and the lights have come up, we are left not with a comprehensive spiritual vision but instead with a quiet image of two estranged friends glimpsing each other through a cafe window. Yet one admires Hansen for the same reticence one faults him for: his refusal, in the end, to play God. It is not his world, Hansen seems to say, but ours, and in the end we must interpret it for ourselves. His deeply suggestive creation is merely an offering to that world, a celebration of its mysteries." --Alice Truax, NYT Book Review, 1999

[i only wish there had been more ruminations about music, i want to read his notebooks!]

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alas, I didn't get it. I loved the characterizations and the descriptions. I appreciated much of the dialogue and dynamics. The rest of it went right over my head, and I was left at the end completely baffled and a little headachey.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did I not read this years ago when we got our copy?!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting work. Like Toole and The Neon Bible, it is hard to fairly assess a work when it looms in the shadow of the true greatness of another of the author's own works. I struggled between 3 and 4 starsfor this; probably 3.5 for me, but the benefit of the doubt must apply here due to the fact that this same man wrote The Chess Garden.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why doesn't everyone just read Brooks Hansen all the time. I admit a preference for "The Chess Garden," but this was still astounding and lovely. I mean, do you prefer "Top Hat" or "Shall We Dance?"

It also may be the Perfect Abigail Storm: troubled 13-year-old girl, Victorian England, supernatural events, fin de siecle spiritualism, and random & eloquent art criticism.