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The Double Bind

A Novel

By Chris Bohjalian

(10)

| Hardcover | 9781400047468

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Book Description

Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contempoContinue

Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in Before You Know Kindness, he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.

Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian’s grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsby’s Long Island and rural New England, between the Roaring Twenties and the twenty-first century.

When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth: before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who had indeed worked with such legends as Chuck Berry, Robert Frost, and Eartha Kitt.

As Laurel’s fascination with Bobbie’s former life begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a deeply hidden, dark family secret. Her search for the truth will lead her further from her old life—and into a cat-and-mouse game with pursuers who claim they want to save her.

In this spellbinding literary thriller, rich with complex and compelling characters—including Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan—Chris Bohjalian takes readers on his most intriguing, most haunting, and most unforgettable journey yet.

Critics

  • The Double Bind By Chris Bohjalian

    The best-selling author of Midwives (a 1998 Oprah's Book Club pick) and Before You Know Kindness, Bohjalian offers an unforgettable blend of mystery and psychological intrigue with his 11th novel. Laurel Estabrook is brutally attacked while cycling i ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

  • The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

    Laurel is a young woman who works at a homeless shelter in Vermont. She is still coping with the aftermath of a violent attack she experienced several years previously. She begins sorting through photographs taken by a homeless man, now deceased, and ... (read full critics)

    thebookbag published on Mon, 13 Sep 2010

4 Reviews

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  • Oh So Disappointing

    I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover but when the cover includes reviews from very reputable sources (The Washington Post, New York Book Review, etc.) and is marketed as a literary thriller, I think I can be forgiven when I expect the content to actually live up to these standards. It does n ... (continue)

    I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover but when the cover includes reviews from very reputable sources (The Washington Post, New York Book Review, etc.) and is marketed as a literary thriller, I think I can be forgiven when I expect the content to actually live up to these standards. It does not.
    Is the story good? Yes; the concept of centering a mystery on the ill fated Buchanan family of the Great Gatsby is very clever. Did this manifest into a gut twisting, page turning thriller? Not even close. The thing is if Bohjalian kept the story focused on the Buchanan plot, I think this book would've been very good. Instead Bohjalian attempts a twisted ending that in my opinion reeked of laziness. (Think Shutter Island but not as well developed) The book just ended and there were about 50 open items for which the author provides zero closure. So super irritating.
    If you like Great Gatsby, you'll probably find this book entertaining but if you have something else available the you know is a great read, I suggest you pass this one by.

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    ReadingQueen 12/17 said on Aug 10, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • A bit confusing

    I loved Bohjalian's Skeletons at the Feast, which is a grim WWII story. This book, which has been hailed as his finest, left me a bit askance. Not to give anything away, a number of F. Scott Fitzgerald's characters in the Great Gatsby are interwoven into this story. This is pretty strange in and of ... (continue)

    I loved Bohjalian's Skeletons at the Feast, which is a grim WWII story. This book, which has been hailed as his finest, left me a bit askance. Not to give anything away, a number of F. Scott Fitzgerald's characters in the Great Gatsby are interwoven into this story. This is pretty strange in and of itself. I have never read Gatsby. I understand that if one has read it, it is easier to understand the parrallels in this story. The "big surprise" at the end was not such a big surprise to me. Not my favorite. Oh well.

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    Marion the librarian said on Mar 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • shocking

    I think that Chris Bohjalian stories, albeit this is based solely on The Double Bind, remind me a somewhat of Jodi Picoult in that his stories examine important issues of our time. Instead of using a court room and the legal system as a backdrop, Chris's plots use more of a mystery type setting whe ... (continue)

    I think that Chris Bohjalian stories, albeit this is based solely on The Double Bind, remind me a somewhat of Jodi Picoult in that his stories examine important issues of our time. Instead of using a court room and the legal system as a backdrop, Chris's plots use more of a mystery type setting where the story unfolds by giving little bits and pieces until it all starts to fit together. In this case, in a very shocking way. I can see myself really getting into his books and going back and reading (& or listening) to every one. If you are a lover of Jodi & enjoy a bit of mystery although not necessarily in the conventional sense, I recommend The Double Bind. The story begins w/the main character narrowly escaping a brutal rape-murder which immediately lures you right in. I wholeheartedly enjoyed this story from the beginning to it's jawdropping ending.

    Main Entry: dou·ble bind
    Function: noun
    : a psychological predicament in which a person receives from a single source conflicting messages that allow no appropriate response to be made
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    Angie said on Jun 4, 2007 | Add your feedback

Book Details

  • Rating:
    (10)
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  • English Books
  • Hardcover 384 Pages
  • ISBN-10: 1400047463
  • ISBN-13: 9781400047468
  • Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
  • Pub date: Feb 13, 2007
  • Dimensions: 1548 mm x 968 mm x 258 mm Just how big is that?
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ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9781400047468 Hardcover $25.00 $17.50 bn.com
-- $17.95 ebooks.com
$25.00 $20.06 The Book Depository
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