Mind Games

Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet has recently been longlisted for the Booker Prize for his latest novel, Case Study (2021). 

The premise of Case Study is that a writer, GMB, is penning a biography of Arthur Collins Braithwaite, a radical psychiatrist in 1960s London who became famous for his books Kill Your Self and Untherapy. GMB has been sent five notebooks purporting to be written by one of Braithwaite's clients. This client is convinced that Braithwaite is a narcissistic charlatan who encouraged her sister's suicide, so she poses as a woman named Rebecca Smyth in an effort to uncover Braithwaite's culpability. But the deeper she delves, the more she loses herself.  

Braithwaite is an eccentric character. He lives a swinging sixties counterculture life, railing against his Northern upbringing. Like RD Laing, the real Scottish psychiatrist who was a key figure in the anti-psychiatry movement, Braithwaite holds controversial views (there is no true self) and his untherapy practice is unconventional. In his book Untherapy he describes a patient 'Dorothy', whom 'Rebecca' instantly recognises as her sister. 

When she becomes Rebecca, the unnamed author of the notebooks transforms into a different person - more confident, outspoken and clever. But the longer she stays as Rebecca, the more she loses herself. Will Rebecca become the dominant self? Will she discover what happened to her sister Veronica? Will Braithwaite uncover her true identity? The stakes are high, and the woman behind Rebecca lacks her alter ego's quick wits and resilience. 

Case Study is a wonderfully strange novel. Like his incredible previous novel, His Bloody Project (2015), Burnet toys with readers by playing with structure and style. The notebooks are interspersed with GMB's biography of Braithwaite and excerpts of Braithwaite's Untherapy. While all of this is entirely fictional, Burnet's inventive use of references together with peppering the story with real life people and places, gives Case Study a realism that propels the story along. 

Burnet is such an innovative writer and Case Study provides much satirical humour and entertainment. I really enjoy an unreliable narrator, and Rebecca is definitely unreliable. While I found that the last third of the novel lost momentum, I quite enjoyed Case Study and was interested to see what happened to this poor woman and her quest to find the truth. 

The Sanctuary

There is nothing better then curling up with an engrossing book that you can read in one sitting. I did that with Julie Otsuka's delightful novel, The Swimmers (2002).

At an underground pool, unrelated swimmers methodically take their laps. The slow lanes features the water walkers, learners and those who swim to relax. The fast lanes are for the committed speedsters who plough through the water with determination. In the middle are lanes for those who swim for the solace, escaping their life above ground, rhythmically perfecting their preferred strokes. The swimmers do not really know each other but know each other's routines. 

One day a crack appears at the bottom of the pool. The swimmers theorise about the cause and consequences. Is it some dark malevolent force? Subsidence? Earthquake? Regardless, the swimmers know that at some point the pool will close for investigation and repair. What will the swimmers do without their daily plunge? Where else will they find such sanctuary?

The Swimmers is narrated by the daughter of an elderly swimmer, Alice. Alice's dementia is worsening and bringing back memories of her childhood and when she was placed in a Japanese internment camp during WW2. Outside the pool, Alice and her daughter recast their relationship.

Otsuka is a poetical writer. The first section of the book is written in first person plural as the swimmers speak collectively. It is lively and engaging, humorous and clever. The second half, is more serious, exploring the mother/daughter relationship in the face of a debilitating illness. 

At less than 200 pages, Otsuka's novel is surprisingly deep. It is a loving testament to finding beauty and meaning in our day-to-day lives and adapting to the cracks that disrupt them.