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Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain
“A thriller that spans five centuries, Doctor Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain is entertaining and thought provoking. . . This book is eerie, smart, unique, and very delicately crafted, telling many stories in every layer of time. . . Truly a pleasure to read.”— Feminist Review
In 1664 Dr. Olaf van Schuler flees the Old World and arrives in New Amsterdam with his lunatic mother, two bags of medical implements, and a carefully guarded book of his own medicines. He is the first in what will become a long line of peculiar physicians. Plagued by madness and guided by an intense desire to cure human affliction, each generation of this unusual family is driven by the science of its spontaneous combustion, phrenology, animal magnetism, electrical shock treatment, psychosurgery, genetic research. As they make their way in the world, New York City, too, evolves—from the dark and rough days of the seventeenth century to the towering, frenetic metropolis of today.
Like Patrick Süskind's classic novel Perfume , Kirsten Menger-Anderson's debut is a literary cabinet of curiosities—fascinating and unsettling, rich and utterly singular.
In 1664 Dr. Olaf van Schuler flees the Old World and arrives in New Amsterdam with his lunatic mother, two bags of medical implements, and a carefully guarded book of his own medicines. He is the first in what will become a long line of peculiar physicians. Plagued by madness and guided by an intense desire to cure human affliction, each generation of this unusual family is driven by the science of its spontaneous combustion, phrenology, animal magnetism, electrical shock treatment, psychosurgery, genetic research. As they make their way in the world, New York City, too, evolves—from the dark and rough days of the seventeenth century to the towering, frenetic metropolis of today.
Like Patrick Süskind's classic novel Perfume , Kirsten Menger-Anderson's debut is a literary cabinet of curiosities—fascinating and unsettling, rich and utterly singular.
290 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2008
19 people are currently reading
384 people want to read
About the author
Kirsten Menger-Anderson
2 books61 followersKirsten Menger-Anderson is the author of Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain, a collection of short stories that was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in fiction and one of Time Out Chicago's top ten books of the year. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications including Ploughshares, the Southwest Review, LitHub, and Undark. She currently lives in San Francisco with her family. Her debut novel The Expert of Subtle Revisions is forthcoming from Crown on March 18, 2025.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
January 20, 2022
As with most collections, there is some unevenness in the quality of stories, but the ones that worked really worked for me! I loved the concept of how what we think of as quackery has evolved over time, and it feels like this has a lot to say to our current "wellness" obsessed culture
January 19, 2009
I very very much wanted to like it, a big fancy New York Times review and everything all whetting my appetite for crazy old-time brain experiments, all hearkening back to the Mutter Museum and you find yourself with one hand on your skull when you've finished reading the review, Find me a computer I must reserve this book at my local library branch AT ONCE!
It is a terrible letdown. The idea is pretty fantastic, so alluring, but the execution isn't there. The stories are kinda-sorta connected in a real stretchy way, and are they even really about the medicine or phrenology or anything the cover image, the jacket text, the review, the title even teased you with at all? NO. Hardly even one thing. It is all feelings from the outside and interpersonal relationships from obnoxious third-person-limited perspectives, and who cares? Not the reader!
I was terribly disappointed. Two stars because the idea was just so good, and because the author thanks a cafe in the neighborhood and I have a bias for* my neighbors.
*"bias for" this is the correct prepositional phrase, with the "for" bit; I double-checked and everything. Let's remember it for always.
It is a terrible letdown. The idea is pretty fantastic, so alluring, but the execution isn't there. The stories are kinda-sorta connected in a real stretchy way, and are they even really about the medicine or phrenology or anything the cover image, the jacket text, the review, the title even teased you with at all? NO. Hardly even one thing. It is all feelings from the outside and interpersonal relationships from obnoxious third-person-limited perspectives, and who cares? Not the reader!
I was terribly disappointed. Two stars because the idea was just so good, and because the author thanks a cafe in the neighborhood and I have a bias for* my neighbors.
*"bias for" this is the correct prepositional phrase, with the "for" bit; I double-checked and everything. Let's remember it for always.
October 5, 2008
What a fascinating collection! Menger-Anderson takes readers through a vivid journey of medical history that begins in 1664 when Dr. Olaf van Schuler flees the Old World and arrives in New Amsterdam with his lunatic mother. The vignettes that follow continue through to the present day and introduce readers to subsequent generations of this eccentric family. As a student of psychology, I was familiar with many of the practices explored in this book, including phrenology, animal magnetism, electrical shock treatment, and psychosurgery. What this collection of stories does is place these procedures in the context of the human experience in a way that only good storytelling can. Menger-Anderson's smooth prose and understated tone allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. With her expertly rendered stories, Menger-Anderson has succeeded in giving the evolution of medical treatment a human face. Although I read many really good books, I don't find too many original ones. Dr. Olaf van Schuler's Brain is both a really good read and an original one. Don't miss it!
October 16, 2008
Doctor Olaf Van Shuler's Brain is a compelling collection of short stories which begins in 1664 with Doctor Olaf Van Shuler and continues into the present with chapters chronicling his many descendants. All these descendants become doctors. Treating an extremely diverse variety of illnesses. In this sense, the book acts not only as a strong work of fiction, but as an interesting, detailed and educational history of New York. All of New York's citizens are represented, from the rich right down to the poor. The stories all have a somber tone to them and no matter how much I rooted for the characters, things never seemed to work out well. Makes one wonder why so many people, despite their best efforts, just can't seem to achieve happiness.
August 12, 2008
Fantastic read - a great look at both "quack" medicine over the centuries, the lengths some people go to to try and end suffering, and the all-too-human problems medicine can't fix.
November 19, 2011
This book is a collection of short stories with the vague link of occurring in separate generations of one family. The author tries to show a history of quack medicine through the eyes of one family but really the link to the single family is vague at best and does nothing to make the stories better or make them more interesting. Each chapter is a separate story that has little or no relation to the prior story so they either stand alone or not. For the most part they do not.
The first story is a perfect example of poor writing. The main character is a doctor doing research to help his mother who has a mental illness. But the author gives the doctor some kind of seizure disorder in which he rapes and murders people when he has seizures. Contrary to the author’s beliefs People with seizure disorders are not dangerous killers. The second story has to do with a doctor (the son of the doctor in the prior story) who believes in spontaneous combustion fighting to help a man who murdered his wife. This could have been an interesting story but in the hands of this author it goes nowhere. The third story is about a developmentally disabled adult who is treated by the son of the doctor in chapter two. In this story, the author seems to be under the impression that the developmentally disabled are dangerous and will potentially attack any woman they are attracted to. And so on.
Overall, I found the stories poorly written and less than interesting. The characters were flat and unbelievable. The endings felt like a page limit had been reached more than the story had reached its logical conclusion. I would recommend that you don’t waste your time with this book.
The first story is a perfect example of poor writing. The main character is a doctor doing research to help his mother who has a mental illness. But the author gives the doctor some kind of seizure disorder in which he rapes and murders people when he has seizures. Contrary to the author’s beliefs People with seizure disorders are not dangerous killers. The second story has to do with a doctor (the son of the doctor in the prior story) who believes in spontaneous combustion fighting to help a man who murdered his wife. This could have been an interesting story but in the hands of this author it goes nowhere. The third story is about a developmentally disabled adult who is treated by the son of the doctor in chapter two. In this story, the author seems to be under the impression that the developmentally disabled are dangerous and will potentially attack any woman they are attracted to. And so on.
Overall, I found the stories poorly written and less than interesting. The characters were flat and unbelievable. The endings felt like a page limit had been reached more than the story had reached its logical conclusion. I would recommend that you don’t waste your time with this book.
Want to read
October 10, 2008Kirsten Menger-Anderson has an endearing smile and shy eyes. How could any reader not love this humble manufacturer of our chosen drug? Her story chronicles generations of doctors and each time period's medical breakthroughs--or so they seem at the time. Menger-Anderson's characters call out to be read just as their patients plead for their sanity. I didn't even get a complimentary copy of Doctor Olaf Van Schuler's Brain, which says a lot that I'm willing to buy it when I have so many free books stacked around me.
Originally posted on Seeing Indigo.
Originally posted on Seeing Indigo.
April 12, 2009
An interesting book that spans 12 generations beginning with Dr. van Schuler leading to the current generation born in 2001. A chapter is devoted to each generation. This did not leave enough time to satisfy my desire to know what happened to each person and their circumstances within the family tree. An interesting read but one that left me feeling like I was missing something between the pages.
February 27, 2009
There's not enough continuity between stories to appreciate this book as a whole, but neither is there enough diversity for each one to stand on its own. I was underwhelmed, although there are certainly bright spots. The last story, in particular, blew me away.
August 16, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Traveling through time with the generations of family physicians with nods to the historical and societal changes of the day in each story. A very well researched and written collection of unusual stories strung together with a pleasant rhythm and pace.
October 27, 2008
A cool look at medical zealots through time. And perhaps confirms that maybe being odd runs in the family.
November 26, 2009
It was a fun read and well written. It seems I might be a sucker for a chaining style collection of short stories.
July 20, 2025
I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did. It's clever and its concept is very intriguing. But, I found it to be just a collection of relatively well-written short stories about interesting but not particularly developed characters, written from the point of view a dispassionate and not very compelling or descriptive narrator, that are connected by family, pretty much in name only (I never really felt the connections), and their interests in medical quackery. In all, in my opinion, it was good but not more than that.
March 13, 2018
This is a series of short stories about a family of doctors. Each short story follows one of the doctors in the family who is of a different generation and practices a different type of medicine. I loved it.
April 30, 2024
A short story collection about a family of doctors and the people around them. It's weird and well written, but it was a hard read for me -- the nature of short story collections, for me, is that the disconnectedness makes it harder to engage.
Thoughtful and sometimes funny and weird.
Thoughtful and sometimes funny and weird.
September 15, 2020
Interesting. Each chapter is its own story, so can be read independently, although they all fall in a linked genealogicial tree. Good stories.
December 29, 2021
Atmospheric and quirky.
June 15, 2023
odd characters who might have been more interesting had the transitions been more orienting
Read
August 26, 2025Weird and sexist.
June 7, 2016
Doctor Olaf van Schuler, recently arrived in New Amsterdam with his lunatic mother, two bags of medical implements, and a carefully guarded book of his own medicines, moved into a one-room house near White Hall and soon found work at the hospital on Brugh Street. There, surrounded by misshapen bottles containing tincture of saffron, wild strawberry, maple, and oil of amber, as well as more common tools of his trade – amputation saws, scalpels, sharpened needles, and long, painstakingly pounded probes – he indulged in his peculiar perversion: slicing heads.
Now if you think that wasn’t enough to have me hooked, you must be new to this page. Not so much a novel, except in the very, very loosest sense as employed by Milan Kundera to describe his The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. While Kundera referred to the series of novellas that made up that book as a “novel” because of its consistent, coherent theme, this book has a stronger claim to the title even if it is essentially a short story collection packaged as a novel.
The book first opens with the desperate life of the titular doctor, intrigued enough by the workings of the brain to investigate it despite legal and religious prohibitions. We then follow the strain of his family line, his descendants showing a decided penchant for the medical profession. What Menger-Anderson has done throughout the book is present seeming crackpot medical theories as they were viewed at the time: the latest scientific breakthrough guaranteed to improve the lives of people everywhere. We are treated to a baquet (a peculiar magnetic “cure” involving a wooden barrel filled with water, magnetized iron filings and iron rods), radium tonics, phrenology, electromagnetic shocks, silicon breast implants and the prions held to blame in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
Menger-Anderson’s attention to period detail is expertly handled and we travel through hundreds of years of New York City history with suffragettes and psychoanalysts and plastic surgeons. Never overdone in its historicity, Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain is an entertaining history lesson at the same time it’s a seminar in skepticism regarding overwrought claims by medicos.
A much more impressive skill, the author also solicits your emotional involvement with a family over the generations whether they are the focus of each specific chapter or merely a tangential part of the tale. Because you know about the back story between Dr. Stuart Steenwycks II and his dreamer ne’er do well brother, Jack, one reads about Stuart’s daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Steenwycks, and her work with an extra measure of concern. Much like the genetic code of madness that is tangled up in the DNA lineage of van Schuler’s family, our sympathies are transmitted down the line.
While you needn’t read it as all-consumingly as you might a more traditional novel, very few of the stories featuring overlapping characters and every one of them sufficient unto itself, Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain is engaging enough to pull you along and wonderfully strange and fascinating and rather unlike many other books out there.
April 19, 2009
A thriller that spans five centuries, Doctor Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain is entertaining and thought provoking. Thirteen generations of eccentric New York City doctors navigate genius, madness and morality. This book is eerie, smart, unique, and very delicately crafted, telling many stories in every layer of time.
The Van Schulers and Steenwycks are a family of eccentric, genius, medical people, mostly doctors, some more on the fringe than others, some mad. Each has his unique specialty. Their fallibilities play out over obsessions with the brain and the mind. Each generation is engaged in inventing a medical fad of the era. For some, the result is tragic. For most it is less clear whether the result has been heroic or tragic. Always, someone has been fooled.
One physician hides both his mother’s extreme madness and his study of the brain from the Catholic Church. He is convinced he will cure her. He also suffers from lunacy. His obsession with collecting the brains of deceased animals escalates into a gruesome, out of control spiral that condemns them both.
Others are almost as odd, though less secretive and polarized. One testifies in favor of a philandering widow, that his deceased wife died of spontaneous combustion by alcoholism. Another performs an experimental surgery, one of the first lobotomies, on his younger sister, hiding this from his older sisters. One Steenwyck is a medicine showman. Wives swallow gulps of radium to promote fertility and feed it to their husbands, revealing secret wishes.
The Steenwycks continue the tradition of cutting edge medicine into the modern era. The protagonists in the last two or three chapters happen to be women. Neither the oddness nor the deceit seem quite as striking or overt in the last era. But maybe that is because we are living in the same time. This novel is quite a reflection on changes in beliefs and the application of science. The only time the change seemed abrupt was the later shift to the 1980s, though maybe that is because it is closer to now. This is what makes it so thought provoking: the gradual transition from backward ways that were once new, all the way to the controversial new.
The novel was truly a pleasure to read and thoroughly researched. The odd medical techniques are real, and nested in the beliefs and social climate of each era. It would be especially fun for anyone interested in the history of medicine. It would be interesting to use to generate discussion in a seminar related to ethics, the history of medicine, or the history of New York City.
Review by Heather Irvine
The Van Schulers and Steenwycks are a family of eccentric, genius, medical people, mostly doctors, some more on the fringe than others, some mad. Each has his unique specialty. Their fallibilities play out over obsessions with the brain and the mind. Each generation is engaged in inventing a medical fad of the era. For some, the result is tragic. For most it is less clear whether the result has been heroic or tragic. Always, someone has been fooled.
One physician hides both his mother’s extreme madness and his study of the brain from the Catholic Church. He is convinced he will cure her. He also suffers from lunacy. His obsession with collecting the brains of deceased animals escalates into a gruesome, out of control spiral that condemns them both.
Others are almost as odd, though less secretive and polarized. One testifies in favor of a philandering widow, that his deceased wife died of spontaneous combustion by alcoholism. Another performs an experimental surgery, one of the first lobotomies, on his younger sister, hiding this from his older sisters. One Steenwyck is a medicine showman. Wives swallow gulps of radium to promote fertility and feed it to their husbands, revealing secret wishes.
The Steenwycks continue the tradition of cutting edge medicine into the modern era. The protagonists in the last two or three chapters happen to be women. Neither the oddness nor the deceit seem quite as striking or overt in the last era. But maybe that is because we are living in the same time. This novel is quite a reflection on changes in beliefs and the application of science. The only time the change seemed abrupt was the later shift to the 1980s, though maybe that is because it is closer to now. This is what makes it so thought provoking: the gradual transition from backward ways that were once new, all the way to the controversial new.
The novel was truly a pleasure to read and thoroughly researched. The odd medical techniques are real, and nested in the beliefs and social climate of each era. It would be especially fun for anyone interested in the history of medicine. It would be interesting to use to generate discussion in a seminar related to ethics, the history of medicine, or the history of New York City.
Review by Heather Irvine
February 21, 2010
"Doctor Olaf van Schuler, recently arrived in New Amsterdam with his lunatic mother, two bags of medical implements, and a carefully guarded book of his own medicines, moved into a one-room house near White Hall and soon found work at the hospital on Brugh Street. There, surrounded by misshapen bottles containing tinctures of saffron, wild strawberry, maple, and oil of amber, as well as more common tools of his trade -- amputation saws, scalpels, sharpened needles, and long, painstakingly pounded probes--he indulged his peculiar perversion: slicing heads."
If ever a first paragraph or subject matter ever screamed, "Stephanie, Read Me!" - it would be this one. And as if that hadn't been enough to convince me, this endorsement by one of my favorite authors cetainly would have done it: "If I had a talent for fiction, this is the book I'd dream of writing," by Mary Roach.
Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain by Kristen Menger-Anderson follows the Steenwycks through generations of physicians, each practicing his or her own brand of medical quackery prevalent for that day and age. One physician diagnoses ailments by feeling the shapes of patients' heads. Another practices electro magnetism. Yet another believes he can revive the dead and another promotes radium therapy. Each chapter tells the story a different generation of this peculiar family, seemingly connected only by their ancestry. However, each generation is dogged by mysterious madness which only becomes accurately diagnosed by the newest, present day generation.
It's funny to think what medical beliefs past generations have held and how idiotic some common practices now seem. And then I got towards the end of the book and I realized - we're still engaging in some widely-practiced medical foolishness today.
I gravitate towards odd and original fiction - and Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain fit that description perfectly!
If ever a first paragraph or subject matter ever screamed, "Stephanie, Read Me!" - it would be this one. And as if that hadn't been enough to convince me, this endorsement by one of my favorite authors cetainly would have done it: "If I had a talent for fiction, this is the book I'd dream of writing," by Mary Roach.
Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain by Kristen Menger-Anderson follows the Steenwycks through generations of physicians, each practicing his or her own brand of medical quackery prevalent for that day and age. One physician diagnoses ailments by feeling the shapes of patients' heads. Another practices electro magnetism. Yet another believes he can revive the dead and another promotes radium therapy. Each chapter tells the story a different generation of this peculiar family, seemingly connected only by their ancestry. However, each generation is dogged by mysterious madness which only becomes accurately diagnosed by the newest, present day generation.
It's funny to think what medical beliefs past generations have held and how idiotic some common practices now seem. And then I got towards the end of the book and I realized - we're still engaging in some widely-practiced medical foolishness today.
I gravitate towards odd and original fiction - and Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain fit that description perfectly!
August 26, 2011
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Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain starts with his story and continues with the stories of the next generations. Schuler's mother is a mad woman, and he believes if he fixes the soul, which he believes is in the brain, he will solve her problems. He experiments mostly on animal brains, but he does get a hold of human brains as well whenever possible. Great story, right? WRONG.
I am very disappointed by this book. The promise was very exciting, and there are parts of the book I very much enjoyed, like the first and last stories. Yet, the author doesn't seem to have much a style, and the stories are told quite matter-of-factly. This is the story of (supposed to be, really) a family who are obsessed with the human brain and the soul for generations and generations, starting from 1600s up to 2000s. It was hard to even comprehend the connections of the family members, let alone highlighting what they do and are trying to accomplish. I didn't get much of a sense of the different time lines either.
The chapters did overlap just a little bit, but other than that, they could be stories of completely different people, and you wouldn't know. Characters were quite disconnected as well. For me, characters are just as important as the story line, yet we didn't really get to know any of them. We met them for quite a bit and witnessed a very short part of their lives, but that's about it. For the most part, we don't even get to find out where they did or might end up.
Lastly, Patrick Süskind's Perfume is one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm rather angry that this was compared to it. Honestly, it doesn't even come close. It doesn't have the sense of curiosity or suspense or cringe-worthiness. Most of all, you don't feel anything toward any of the characters, which is very opposite of Perfume. I'd say go read Perfume and don't even waste your time with this one.
Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain starts with his story and continues with the stories of the next generations. Schuler's mother is a mad woman, and he believes if he fixes the soul, which he believes is in the brain, he will solve her problems. He experiments mostly on animal brains, but he does get a hold of human brains as well whenever possible. Great story, right? WRONG.
I am very disappointed by this book. The promise was very exciting, and there are parts of the book I very much enjoyed, like the first and last stories. Yet, the author doesn't seem to have much a style, and the stories are told quite matter-of-factly. This is the story of (supposed to be, really) a family who are obsessed with the human brain and the soul for generations and generations, starting from 1600s up to 2000s. It was hard to even comprehend the connections of the family members, let alone highlighting what they do and are trying to accomplish. I didn't get much of a sense of the different time lines either.
The chapters did overlap just a little bit, but other than that, they could be stories of completely different people, and you wouldn't know. Characters were quite disconnected as well. For me, characters are just as important as the story line, yet we didn't really get to know any of them. We met them for quite a bit and witnessed a very short part of their lives, but that's about it. For the most part, we don't even get to find out where they did or might end up.
Lastly, Patrick Süskind's Perfume is one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm rather angry that this was compared to it. Honestly, it doesn't even come close. It doesn't have the sense of curiosity or suspense or cringe-worthiness. Most of all, you don't feel anything toward any of the characters, which is very opposite of Perfume. I'd say go read Perfume and don't even waste your time with this one.
June 8, 2015
The organization's the thing in this collection of short stories tied together by following the medical careers of succeeding generations of Doctor Olaf, who arrived in Dutch New York in 1664.
The chapter headings in the table of contents include dates that can be keyed to the genealogical chart for Doctor Olaf's descendants to trace the tale forward in time, family, and medical theory. The underlying theme seems to be the often small medical and scientific successes (guesses, really) and the more common large errors in "scientific" thoughts and trends--mesmerism, phrenology, radium treatments, and shock treatments, are among the discarded stars of past generations of medical mistreatment.
The stories are well-told but don't often engage the heart of the reader. In fact, even as the perspective changes from generation to generation in the well-handled transitions that stitch the stories together, the matter-of-fact writing style never changes. I was reminded stylistically of some of Stephen Millhauser's short stories in The Barnum Museumand Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, but without the spark of genius that raises his writing to a higher plane. The flap copy describes Menger-Anderson as a new writer "with tremendous imagination and verve." Instead, I found it was precisely the verve that was missing from these stories.
Still a good first effort from an author who has the potential to improve as she finds the heart of her stories with the point of her pen (to paraphrase a Jimmy Buffett lyric).
The chapter headings in the table of contents include dates that can be keyed to the genealogical chart for Doctor Olaf's descendants to trace the tale forward in time, family, and medical theory. The underlying theme seems to be the often small medical and scientific successes (guesses, really) and the more common large errors in "scientific" thoughts and trends--mesmerism, phrenology, radium treatments, and shock treatments, are among the discarded stars of past generations of medical mistreatment.
The stories are well-told but don't often engage the heart of the reader. In fact, even as the perspective changes from generation to generation in the well-handled transitions that stitch the stories together, the matter-of-fact writing style never changes. I was reminded stylistically of some of Stephen Millhauser's short stories in The Barnum Museumand Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, but without the spark of genius that raises his writing to a higher plane. The flap copy describes Menger-Anderson as a new writer "with tremendous imagination and verve." Instead, I found it was precisely the verve that was missing from these stories.
Still a good first effort from an author who has the potential to improve as she finds the heart of her stories with the point of her pen (to paraphrase a Jimmy Buffett lyric).
April 1, 2009
This beautifully written novel-in-stories follows the lives of twelve generations of New York City physicians who are trying to better the human condition, each in his or her own misguided way. I have to say Dr. Olaf van Schuler’s Brain is the most profoundly satisfying book I’ve read in a very long time. Kirsten Menger-Anderson has a real gift for choosing the perfect resonant detail, creating prose that is both evocative and elegantly spare. Racism, feminism, poverty, the pain of the immigrant experience—each story illuminates the experience of the struggling outsider in a fresh, thought-provoking fashion. What happens in the silences and shifts between the stories is as intriguing as the narratives themselves. Most impressive of all was the way the disparate voices “slur” together in the brilliant conclusion.
Rich in historical information, the book offers a light-handed education in medical history as well as an insight into the mixture of arrogance, delusion and faith that still lurks at the heart of medical science today. One chilling refrain is that the Drs. Steenwycks, no matter how dangerous their quackery, are always held in the highest popular esteem. “Popular opinion never strayed too far from the truth,” muses one character when she reads about the miracle of lobotomies in the New York Times--words of self-comfort as dangerous today as they were fifty years ago.
As mesmerizing as a faith healer, this book grabbed me from the first paragraph and never let go. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy intelligent fiction that offers more questions than answers.
Rich in historical information, the book offers a light-handed education in medical history as well as an insight into the mixture of arrogance, delusion and faith that still lurks at the heart of medical science today. One chilling refrain is that the Drs. Steenwycks, no matter how dangerous their quackery, are always held in the highest popular esteem. “Popular opinion never strayed too far from the truth,” muses one character when she reads about the miracle of lobotomies in the New York Times--words of self-comfort as dangerous today as they were fifty years ago.
As mesmerizing as a faith healer, this book grabbed me from the first paragraph and never let go. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy intelligent fiction that offers more questions than answers.
March 7, 2011
When I picked this book up at the local bargain book fair, the inside flap looked interesting. A family of doctors doing brain experiments, spontaneous combustion, and something about animal magnetism. Sounded cool.
When I started reading, I was initially disappointed that there didn't seem to be a coherent link between chapters. Each dealt with a different generation (generally), but there was little overlap in actual story. I mean the second doctor didn't even know his father, his mother was simply raped by him. Some of the chapters weren't even narrated by a family member, leaving the family theme a bit lacking.
Fortunately, the mini stories were usually pretty interesting. Despite being short, there was character development, plot, and plenty of action. Sometimes I wanted more about characters, The Fool in particular. Some of the plots were also left somewhat unresolved. While the chapter ended in an expected place, I turned the page expected a week or month later, not 20 years with different characters.
Despite my mild qualms however, it was a good book. As I approached the end I started wondering if the author was going to tie things together. I began to be disappointed, but them, bam, in a few short sentences the author brought the entire thing together in a very satisfactory manner. Yes, there are still questions I have about some of the characters, but I don't qualms about why each chapter exists and where the author wanted me to go.
All in all I'd say the book is worth a read. It's not horror, it's not a thriller, and it isn't a mystery. It is however a good story made up of good stories.
When I started reading, I was initially disappointed that there didn't seem to be a coherent link between chapters. Each dealt with a different generation (generally), but there was little overlap in actual story. I mean the second doctor didn't even know his father, his mother was simply raped by him. Some of the chapters weren't even narrated by a family member, leaving the family theme a bit lacking.
Fortunately, the mini stories were usually pretty interesting. Despite being short, there was character development, plot, and plenty of action. Sometimes I wanted more about characters, The Fool in particular. Some of the plots were also left somewhat unresolved. While the chapter ended in an expected place, I turned the page expected a week or month later, not 20 years with different characters.
Despite my mild qualms however, it was a good book. As I approached the end I started wondering if the author was going to tie things together. I began to be disappointed, but them, bam, in a few short sentences the author brought the entire thing together in a very satisfactory manner. Yes, there are still questions I have about some of the characters, but I don't qualms about why each chapter exists and where the author wanted me to go.
All in all I'd say the book is worth a read. It's not horror, it's not a thriller, and it isn't a mystery. It is however a good story made up of good stories.
May 28, 2013
If medicine gone awry makes you squeamish this could make you explode. (And yes, spontaneous combustion shows up in one of the most squallid of these tales.) From 1600s brain surgery to twentieth-century silicone breast transplants, each chapter of this book contains a doctor from a long genealogical line. Sometimes the doctor is the main character, sometimes they are basically bystanders, often their wives or daughters are the protagonists. Some historical aspect of medical history is contained in each chapter. Sometimes, however, history itself takes center stage.
At first I tried to read this like a novel, making family connections from generation to generation. But, at times, this was not always clear. I then realized the book read more easily as a string of short stories. I guess you could say the generational connections were not unlike the way one generation sometimes knows its family history and sometimes it doesn't. And some family history is better buried and forgotten. You may want to forget these doctors who dabble in all sorts of experimental, cutting-edge and just plain wacky medicine. But there couldn't be the doctors without the public full of people who willingly subject their bodies to everything from shock treatment and lobotomies to radium and phrenology.
Every story/chapter left me feeling like I'd just awoken from a strange dream or spent fifteen minutes looking at pictures of people with the world's longest fingernails, which totally creeps me out. The quality of the stories varies a bit, but overall the writing is quite good. Recommended for people fascinated with news of the weird or looking for something off-beat.
At first I tried to read this like a novel, making family connections from generation to generation. But, at times, this was not always clear. I then realized the book read more easily as a string of short stories. I guess you could say the generational connections were not unlike the way one generation sometimes knows its family history and sometimes it doesn't. And some family history is better buried and forgotten. You may want to forget these doctors who dabble in all sorts of experimental, cutting-edge and just plain wacky medicine. But there couldn't be the doctors without the public full of people who willingly subject their bodies to everything from shock treatment and lobotomies to radium and phrenology.
Every story/chapter left me feeling like I'd just awoken from a strange dream or spent fifteen minutes looking at pictures of people with the world's longest fingernails, which totally creeps me out. The quality of the stories varies a bit, but overall the writing is quite good. Recommended for people fascinated with news of the weird or looking for something off-beat.
April 18, 2010
Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain is certainly a unique collection of related short stories; however, I feel that the foundational concept/idea is greater than the actually stories themselves. The book begins in 1664 and is set in NYC focusing on the eccentricities of the descendants of Doctor Olaf van Schuler. Basically, each chapter/short story focuses on a descendant of the van Schuler family from 1664-2006. The psychological representations of characters as well as topics ranging from psychosurgery, phrenology, animal magnetism, etc. were presented in an above average style by Kristen Menger-Anderson. For me, the main problem was being able to develop a mental picture of the different time periods in such brief stories. For most of the book I felt stuck in the 1850-1900 time range. Furthermore, I feel that the book could have been considered near excellent had the author written in the style used during the time period each short story took place in. Overall, the book kept my attention and is a nice, light, short read for individuals interested in the brain, psychology, development of science/pseudoscience, and the short story genre.
October 21, 2015
What an interesting book!
The premise is smartly done: A doctor in the 1600s, just after the middle ages, starts the book with his story, then progresses very nicely through the generations of his family tree ... doctor after doctor after doctor. The chapters read as short stories, and indeed, some were published separately in various publications apart from appearing in this book.
Not all of the stories center around the doctor. Some center around how the doctor is treating the main character. There is talk of bleeding someone as a cure, drinking a tincture to become pregnant, shock therapy, a very early lobotomy, and the move away from silicone breast implants. The stories follow the latest in medical procedure and technology, ending in the year 2006. And not all treat physical ailments. The science of phrenology is examined, as is "hysteria" and retardation.
Very compelling, very clever, nice writing and extremely fluid, giving the single thread that weaves through the book. Highly recommended for a different sort of reading experience!
The premise is smartly done: A doctor in the 1600s, just after the middle ages, starts the book with his story, then progresses very nicely through the generations of his family tree ... doctor after doctor after doctor. The chapters read as short stories, and indeed, some were published separately in various publications apart from appearing in this book.
Not all of the stories center around the doctor. Some center around how the doctor is treating the main character. There is talk of bleeding someone as a cure, drinking a tincture to become pregnant, shock therapy, a very early lobotomy, and the move away from silicone breast implants. The stories follow the latest in medical procedure and technology, ending in the year 2006. And not all treat physical ailments. The science of phrenology is examined, as is "hysteria" and retardation.
Very compelling, very clever, nice writing and extremely fluid, giving the single thread that weaves through the book. Highly recommended for a different sort of reading experience!
December 18, 2008
This fantastic debut by Kirsten Menger-Anderson is the best book I’ve read in the past few months. In addition to using language to potent effect, the author plays with an unusual format of linked short stories – each chapter delves into the life of one person from the Steenwyck family tree starting in the 1600s and progressing to the modern day. Each generation carries on the legacy of the original patriarch, Dr. Olaf van Schuler, by pursuing the medical profession. Odd lore from the history of medicine, from phrenology (the study of bumps on the skull) to spontaneous combustion, adds to the rich story of a family’s madness and passion. Interwoven into the narrative is the history of a burgeoning New York City from its beginnings as New Amsterdam in the 17th Century. It astonishes how the author is able to illuminate a person’s life, in all its pain and glory, in a mere twenty page chapter.
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