The Reconstructionist

Rating:
Summary: A MESMERIZING CONTEMPORARY GOTHIC TALE
Review: As with her seductively dark debut novel, Damage (made into a film starring Juliette Binoche and Jeremy Irons), author Josephine Hart once again explores the paths of human desire and self-deception.

A successful London psychiatrist, Jack Harrington, devotes his hours and thoughts to the problems of his patients. Divorced from a wife with whom he had spent time "in the social purgatory that rowing couples inflict upon one another," he seems to lead a well ordered mannerly existence sometimes marked by overly protective feelings for his sister, Kate.

Jack's tranquility is interrupted when his former wife suffers a heart attack, the family estate in Ireland is put up for sale, and the soon-to-be-married Kate develops an eerie edginess.

When Jack and Kate return to the family home, he is forced to confront long buried truths concerning a long ago tragedy and the scars left upon those who witnessed it.

With masterly detail and perceptive psychological insights Josephine Hart has penned a mesmerizing contemporary Gothic tale centering on familial relationships, both beneficial and pernicious.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: pay attention while reading this book
Review: This book is a trip! You really have to pay attention while you read the book because they give clues all the way through it. There is a twist at the end that is totally unexpected. I had to re-read the last few chapters to make sure I read it right.

The story is told from Jack Trainor's point of view. Jack is a psychiatrist, and has a younger sister Kate. Kate is a writer, but she seems extremely unstable. The focus of the story is Jack's differing relationships with women. By the end of the story, there is a resolution in both Kate's relationships with men through the resolution of Jack's relationship with women. All this resolution comes because Jack faces the truth of the horrible event that framed their youth.

I would highly recommend this book. The librarian who checked it out to me told me it was strange, but I disagree. It takes a little bit to get used to, but the story grabs you as you get further in. Happy reading!

Rating:
Summary: pay attention while reading this book
Review: This book is a trip! You really have to pay attention while you read the book because they give clues all the way through it. There is a twist at the end that is totally unexpected. I had to re-read the last few chapters to make sure I read it right.

The story is told from Jack Trainor's point of view. Jack is a psychiatrist, and has a younger sister Kate. Kate is a writer, but she seems extremely unstable. The focus of the story is Jack's differing relationships with women. By the end of the story, there is a resolution in both Kate's relationships with men through the resolution of Jack's relationship with women. All this resolution comes because Jack faces the truth of the horrible event that framed their youth.

I would highly recommend this book. The librarian who checked it out to me told me it was strange, but I disagree. It takes a little bit to get used to, but the story grabs you as you get further in. Happy reading!