An audio book
The narrator receives from an anonymous contact some journals which involve Braithwaite, a sixties follower of Laing who the narrator happens to be writing a biography of. The book alternates extracts from the journals with extracts from the biography.
In the biography sections we learn that Braithwaite's mother left when he was 10, and that his engineer father killed himself. He met Colin Wilson. They didn't get on. During a TV debate chaired by Joan Bakewell he stormed off. He saw an actor in a pub and wondered whether his persona in the pub is any more real than his on-stage ones. He read doppelganger novels, especially ones where the protagonist murders "the other". At Oxford he didn't know whether to hide his Northern accent or flaunt it. He was popular with girls. He met Laing. He wrote a book called "kill your self". He met Dirk Bogarde and they talks about authentic selves.
The journal is written by someone who's read Braithewaite's book - a sister of a patient of Braithwaite. In the case history he wrote about the patient, changing some of the details to preserve confidentiality. Other inaccuracies of the journal are of the type that convince the narrator it's not a prank.
The journal writer lives with her father. She had a sister, Veronica, who killed herself 2 years before while doing a maths PhD at Cambridge, when 26, having had some sessions with Braithwaite. She turns up at Braithwaite's as "Rebecca", pretending to be slightly deranged. When he's out of his office she checks his files. He catches her. She meets a man (a photographer) and arranges to meet him later still playing the Rebecca role.
She publishes a short story about an office worker like her having an affair with a married man. It's a one off. She continues having sessions with Braithwaite. He seems to use them as chat-up sessions.
Rebecca begins to acquire more independence, accusing the woman of obstructing her from having sex. The woman falls into depression, giving up her job.
Braithwaite was briefly imprisoned for having drugs and sex with a minor. His reputation never recovered. Eventually he hung himself.
At the end the author is invited to meet the anonymous contact. It's a 70ish woman. Rebecca.
Other reviews
- Nina Allan
- Marcie McCauley (In Case Study, Burnet presents two additional authors, whose documents are made available to readers. Most compelling are the private notebooks of a woman who is preoccupied by a young woman’s suicide; she believes that she has recognised the dead woman in a psychotherapist’s published work, despite that author’s having concealed the woman’s true identity. The author of the notebooks presents evidence of the psychotherapist’s misconduct and excerpts his publications; this complex structure allows questions about selfhood and identity, confusion and delusion, to proliferate. He not only presents different iterations of narratives, but different versions of authorship.)
No comments:
Post a Comment