The Analyst -- John Katzenbach: A Book Review

Ever had your identity stolen?  Ever had anyone simply take your name and use it for their own gain?  Ever had anyone approach you and tell you about things you've done, which you know you haven't, even in those days of drunken hedonism during college?  Ever had you taken away from you, if a minute portion?

Some of us have.  And for those of us who have not, chances are it will happen.  But it is the rare individual who knows no one who hasn't had trouble with their bank accounts, lost records at any governement agency, had people forging (including your offspring) their signature, or had their credit cards stolen.

John Katzenbach presents us a novel of revenge so disruptive that it boggles the mind.  What would happen if you angered someone so much that they decided to destroy your life?  Not only destroy your life, but demand you take your own life as payment for what you've done?  And what if, for an incentive, that same someone has the resources and means to do it, then uses loved ones as a counterweight for your decision -- in other words, if you do not concede to the demands, they will kill someone you know and love, or at least care for?  And then, in an orgasm of sociopathic brilliance, the tormentor decides to make it a game, gives you a certain amount of days to figure out who the offended and what the offense was, gives you those days to win back your life.

Diabolical?  Indeed.  Psychoanalyst Frederick Starks has led a comfortable, routine existence, providing a service for the affluent.  He has been distant with his relatives, his wife has been dead of cancer for several years, and he lives for his vacations away from his patients and the city.  But it is all routine.  Until he receives a letter that drastically alters his life, throws it akilter. 

And as the days count down and time runs short, as the good doctor suffers personal, financial, and reputiational distress, the moral quandary grows over what he should do.  But can he really bring himself to kill himself?

Katzenbach presents a most tantalizing premise as well as a well-written novel of revenge and morality.  The Analyst is part mystery and part philosophy.  It is a novel of beginnings and endings and full of surprises, not only reflecting the lengths to which some will go to exact revenge for a perceived offense, but how much a man can lose of himself before that final breath is taken and there is nothing left.

So, make youself comfortable on the couch.  Lie down if you wish, because, when the session begins, you are in for a totally engrossing one-on-one with The Analyst.