Synopses & Reviews
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Far from being simply a mystery story, this is a complex exploration of the human psyche and its efforts to heal and survive in whatever manner possible." Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Conflating literary lore, photographic analysis and meditations on homelessness and mental illness, Bohjalian produces his best and most complex fiction yet. Ultra-clever, and moving, too." Kirkus (Starred Review)
Review
"The Double Bind races toward a conclusion that boasts a shocking twist....This elegantly crafted tale is well worth delving into." Booklist
Review
"Bohjalian has written a literary thriller." Los Angeles Times
Review
"It takes a clever writer to pull off such a head-spinner, and a brave one indeed to borrow from one of the greatest of American novels." Hartford Courant
Review
"The reader will either go back to the beginning of the book to re-examine the trail of clues, or simply throw the book against the wall and pick up the next book in the to-be-read stack." Denver Post
Synopsis
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 literatures 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 Bohjalians riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalians grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsbys 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 Vermonts 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 wont 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 Laurels fascination with Bobbies 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.
Synopsis
Withdrawing into her photography and a job at a homeless shelter after being attacked while riding her bike, student Laurel Estabrook encounters Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of secret photos, but when Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel is certain that the photos hide a dark family secret and embarks on an obsessive, potentially dangerous search for the truth. 100,000 first printing.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Chris Bohjalian is the critically acclaimed author of ten novels, including Midwives (a Publishers Weekly Best Book and an Oprah's Book Club selection) and his most recent New York Times bestseller, Before You Know Kindness. His work has been translated into eighteen languages and published in twenty-one countries. He lives with his wife and daughter in Vermont.
Reading Group Guide
A Note to the ReaderIn order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this book-as well as the ending.
If you have not finished reading The Double Bind, we respectfully suggest that you may want to wait before reviewing this guide.
1. Chris Bohjalian begins the novel with a very matter-of-fact description of a brutal attack. Later in the novel, he writes about Laurel, “she preferred black and white [photography] because she thought it offered both greater clarity and deeper insight into her subjects. In her opinion, you understood a person better in black and white” (page 33). Compare Laurels analysis of photography to the writing style of the author, particularly in the prologue.
2. In a feat of narrative turnaround, The Double Bind ends with a shocking revelation. Did you find yourself reviewing the novel or rereading it to experience it anew? Did you find the treatment of F. Scott Fitzgeralds characters to be more or less significant in light of the revelation about Laurels sanity?
3. Bohjalian introduces the world of The Great Gatsby seamlessly into his characters lives, as if it were real. As readers, we come to understand that all of it was a figment of Laurels addled mind. Nevertheless, Fitzgeralds themes resonate deeply within Bohjalians narrative: the death of the American Dream, repeating the past, and self-reinvention, to name a few. Discuss how each author (Fitzgerald and Bohjalian) explores these themes, and examine any others that stood out for you.
4. Discuss Bohjalians treatment of homelessness, both as a reality and as an abstraction or social issue. Did The Double Bind change your thoughts and views on the plight of the homeless in America? If so, how?
5. Why did Laurel, as the author writes, allow Talia to “remain a part of her life when she consciously exiled herself from the rest of the herd” (page 125)?
6. We learn from Laurel that the phrase “Double Bind” is a psychiatric term for a “particular brand of bad parenting [that] could inadvertently spawn schizophrenia” (page 200). What else, in light of Laurels mental state, might the title of the book refer to?
7. Is Laurels imagined life for Bobbie-and all his psychiatric problems-a way for her to express her own psychotic break? Is the Bobbie Crocker that the reader gets to know really a facet of Laurels personality?
8. Through most of the book the reader believes, along with Laurel, that she escaped certain rape-and that her ability to hold on to her bike saved her. But after the attack, she gives up biking. Discuss the play between the conscious and subconscious mind-a delicate balance that must have underlined all of Laurels actions-in this abandonment of the very thing shed convinced herself was her savior.
9. In what ways is Dan Corbetts tattoo of the devil as a skull with horns reminiscent of the billboard of the pair of eyes that overlooks the Valley of Ashes in The Great Gatsby? Is there other imagery in the novel that echoes Fitzgeralds tropes?
10. “For the first time, [Katherine] began to wonder if shed made a serious mistake when shed given Laurel that box of old photos” (page 142). Were the photos the catalyst for Laurels downfall? Would Laurel have eventually suffered a similar psychological breakdown without the introduction of the photos?
11. Were you surprised to discover that Davids children were figments of Laurels imagination? In hindsight, were there clues in Marissa and Cindys actions that revealed their origin in Laurels mind?
12. Was Bobbie Crocker really the father of Laurels attacker, Dan Corbett? Is it possible that the elderly Crocker really did see her attack? If so, would he have known who Laurel was when he arrived at BEDS? Discuss the implications of this possibility.
13. How was Laurel able to block out what really happened to her when she carried real physical scars of the mutilation to remind her of it? Were there clues in the narrative that part of her did know what happened all along?
14. Laurel suffered a horrendous attack and managed to go on to do great work for the most neglected members of society. Does her breakdown and hospitalization have a negating effect on the seemingly heroic work that came before it? Why or why not?
15. In the end, were Bobbie Crocker and his photographs real or just a figment of Laurels traumatized mind?
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Chris Bohjalian
Read an exclusive essay by Chris Bohjalian