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The Semantics of Murder is a rare treat: a complex, intelligent murder mystery that is also a great read. Irish writer Aifric Campbell's first novel is loosely based on the life of the American linguist Richard Montague, who was found murdered in his home in 1971. The murder was never solved, but it was assumed at the time that the victim had been killed by a male prostitute. The Semantics of Murder is written from the point of view of the victim's much younger brother, the unwanted sibling of his mother's favourite son, the brilliant intellectual. The younger son, Jay Hamilton, is now a psychoanalyst who is forced to examine his own psyche and the ambiguities of own profession when the case is reopened. Writing under a pseudonym, Hamilton fictionalizes the lives of his own patients, believing that "by incorporating them into his fiction he could reach a far wider audience and might even succeed where Freud had failed in the integration of science and art." As the book progresses, this position becomes more and more of a threat to his professional integrity. This beautifully written book also takes an excruciatingly honest look at psychoanalysis, its purported scientific basis, and the role that psychoanalysts' own humanity plays in their relationship with patients. |
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Beethovenstraat 32
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