I love to read. I know I’ve said this before but I do. Back in the day, I would read a book or two a week (especially when I commuted into NYC and had 60+ minutes to kill on the train each way). On vacations where we sit on the beach or by a pool, I can usually read a book a day. But not so much anymore. Because I spend most of my day reading for my job, sometimes the last thing I want to do at night is read more. Unless I get a book that immediately grabs my attention, the kind which I clamor for some time to finish and may even blow off plans in order to sit and read. Yet lately it seems these books have been to far between. Until The Double Bind, my latest book club book.
I do not know why this book grabbed me from the beginning. Maybe because we’re immediately introduced to Laurel, a graduate from the University of Vermont in Burlington (a school which I strongly considered). Or because Laurel is (was) a biker, like me. Or because she lives in Burlington and rides (rode) in Vermont (in areas I recognize) or perhaps because she suffered a trauma recently and, in a way, so did I. I’m not sure, but I know once I started to read Laurel’s story and identify with her and her environment, I wanted to unravel the mystery of the homeless man she knew, and the photographs he possessed when he died, which may indicate that he was somehow involved in her life and the trauma she suffered.
The book moves quickly with suspense (which I normally don’t like) and I highly recommend it. Since the book also brings to life characters from another American Novel, The Great Gatsby, it might not be such a bad idea to have read or at least be familiar with that story before you read this (wish I had re-read that first too).
Now, if you’re going to read the book, don’t go any further.
I definitely may spoil the ending below, so this is your last chance to stop!!
I’ve been known to read the end of the book, or the last page, before I actually finish the story, especially in a suspense novel and especially when I like the protagonist, because I don’t like it when bad things happen to people I like (or at the very least, I want to be forewarned). But I didn’t do it here. So when I figured out what was going on, it hit me like a ton of bricks in the same way The Sixth Sense did – and I don’t want to sound cocky but it’s rare that a book or a movie can surprise me.
Now with this one, I did figure it out the shocker behind our mysterious patient, before it was revealed (there were clues) but part of me wants to go back and re-read the book and identify all of them. I think because the author kept this moving at such a fast-pace, he was able to intersperse a lot more clues and foreshadowing than I picked up on and I would love to go find them all.
I’m looking forward to our book club discussion and would love to hear from others who have read the book as to what they think.