The Double Bind (Paperback) by Chris Bohjalian - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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Carolyn added it (review of isbn 0739341324)

02/06/08

Read in January, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Notice there are no stars associated with this review. If only there was a choice for black hole. This book was dreadful. Horrible. Awful. A few years ago I read his "Midwives", which I really liked, so I thought I'd like this too. Wrong! It is billed as a "literary thriller". Oh, really? I swear, the suspense and thrills are more elegantly crafted in an average episode of Scooby Doo than in this piece of crap book. And literary?? I think it was poorly written. It drov...more Notice there are no stars associated with this review. If only there was a choice for black hole. This book was dreadful. Horrible. Awful. A few years ago I read his "Midwives", which I really liked, so I thought I'd like this too. Wrong! It is billed as a "literary thriller". Oh, really? I swear, the suspense and thrills are more elegantly crafted in an average episode of Scooby Doo than in this piece of crap book. And literary?? I think it was poorly written. It drove me to distraction the way the author avoided writing "she", but instead referred to people as thier occupation. I wonder how many times "the social worker" appeared in the book. Way too many. This book has gotten such good reviews; I just don't understand it. The main character is a social worker who works at a homeless shelter. One of the former clients dies and in his possession are photographs and Laurel (the social worker) takes an interest in them. The interest promptly turns to obsession. The photos are of many subjects (famous people, etc), but Laurel recognizes a house from her hometown in one and guess what? It's the house from The Great Gatsby, and the people in the picture are the children of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Laurel immediately and irrationally assumes/insists that the boy in the picture is the dead homeless man and she sets out to prove it and find out how he ended up homeless and alone. At first I thought bringing in characters from The Great Gatsby was an annoying plot device. And very lazy. Like dude, make up you own characters. It made no sense why the author chose to use those people and their story. And WHY was Laurel acting so crazy and pursuing this even though she had NOTHING to back up her assumptions. Oh, I forgot - When Laurel was in college she was attacked while riding her bike and saved from certain rape at the last possible moment, so she's sill living with the aftereffects of that (even though it seems like she goes overboard about it at times). So we've got this chick acting all nuts and we've got The Great Gatsby crap going on, and I DO NOT CARE about the story or the characters. SPOILER ALERT - So why is Laurel acting like a loon? Oh, what, didn't the author bother to TELL us before the last chapter? It's because she IS crazy, silly. And she didn't ALMOST get raped and brutalized a few years ago. She really WAS raped and mutilated and left for dead. So see? There's a REASON she's acting so nutty. (incidentally, the exposition of the truth of her attack was presented very clumsily and I was offended reading about it.) Oh, and the reason that the Gatsby characters were in the book? It was all in Laurel's imagination. Those people aren't REAL, you fool! Now why were you thinking they were actual characters in the book you just read?? I'm getting mad again just thinking about this book. Boy, did I hate it. There's more to hate, but I guess I should wrap this up. Ok, there's one more reason I hated it, and it was because of the reader on the audiobook version. I listened to another book that Susan Denaker read, and she kind of annoyed me, but I got through it ok. This time, she bugged the hell out of me. The combo of the bad book and her voice created the perfect storm of hate. Her voice is very smooth and sounds well-trained and full and I wouldn't be surprised if she wins awards for it. But after a while it comes off as haughty and strident and she over-dramatizes and I don't think I will ever be able to listen to her again. Ever. Well, do you get the idea that I did NOT have a good experience with this book? I felt manipulated and used by the end, and the whole time I was irritated because things just didn't add up. The way it was all wrapped up at the end was rushed and seemed like an afterthought. Honestly, I do not understand why anybody liked it. Maybe if I had read it instead of listened to it I wouldn't have hated it so much, but I still don't think I would have liked it. Soooo - I have spent much more time and energy thinking about this bad book than I have ever spent on my favorite books. Why is that? I want to warn you! On the other hand I want you to read it and agree with me. On the other other hand I want you to read it and like it so I can hold you in contempt. Not really. Please, I beg you, even if you read it and do like it, I don't want to know!! Ok, I'm done. ...less

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Jonniker rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

05/04/08

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: No one. Ever.

Offensively bad. Poorly written and/or poorly edited -- likely both -- oh dear crap, it was awful. Overwritten. Stupid. Carelessly written. Used the word "dowager" at least five hundred times -- so much that I laughed out loud and wished I'd made a drinking game of it. And it was UNNECESSARY. Who edited this? Who allowed "epoxied" to stand in for "glued" three times on three consecutive pages in totally needless contexts? Who greenlighted "dowager" so many...more Offensively bad. Poorly written and/or poorly edited -- likely both -- oh dear crap, it was awful. Overwritten. Stupid. Carelessly written. Used the word "dowager" at least five hundred times -- so much that I laughed out loud and wished I'd made a drinking game of it. And it was UNNECESSARY. Who edited this? Who allowed "epoxied" to stand in for "glued" three times on three consecutive pages in totally needless contexts? Who greenlighted "dowager" so many damn times? Who decided to refer to Laurel as "the social worker" in such a manner that it became absurdly confusing as to who THE HELL he was referring to?

No, really: I want to know who edited this. Has Chris Bohjalian reached such great heights that he doesn't NEED an editor? Because someone should tell him that he does. Someone should also have told him that he wrote better books than this in the past, and that maybe he should have trashed it and started over again at the drawing board.

The plot -- if you can call it that -- was so incredibly inane, the character(s) so unlikable, that I honestly didn't give a rip about what was happening. I don't even care enough to summarize it for you, because it would be laughable, and explains why the book description didn't REMOTELY match what the story was about. Like, at all.

I slogged forward because I felt an obligation to make it through to the "twist" -- which I figured out at a stupidly early time, such was the sad transparency of what he'd written -- the whole time thinking, this better be one hell of a twist (perhaps one that did my laundry for me and served me crackers and cheese in bed) for me to feel AT ALL decent about having suffered through this piece of utter crap. (DOWAGER. JESUS CHRIST HE SAID IT A THOUSAND TIMES. EPOXIED. I EPOXIED MY FIST TO MY FACE OUT OF FRUSTRATION ABOUT THE DOWAGER USAGE. HOW IS THAT, CHRIS? SOUND GOOD? BECAUSE I DID.)

I am so distraught that I slogged through this that I ... I can't even articulate it without being a jerk, as I just finished it.

RUN. RUN AWAY. Awful. Awful awful awful. ...less

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Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

03/17/08

bookshelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I really wanted to like this book, as I found the premise fascinating. The execution, though, was so weak that it was almost unbearable to force my way through the entire book.

The story centers on Laurel, who survived a brutal attack as a young college student. She graduates from college, dates older men, and works at a homeless shelter, where she comes across a man named Bobbie, who carries with him a mysterious box of photographs. Laurel becomes obsessed with the photographs and wi...more I really wanted to like this book, as I found the premise fascinating. The execution, though, was so weak that it was almost unbearable to force my way through the entire book.

The story centers on Laurel, who survived a brutal attack as a young college student. She graduates from college, dates older men, and works at a homeless shelter, where she comes across a man named Bobbie, who carries with him a mysterious box of photographs. Laurel becomes obsessed with the photographs and with figuring out where Bobbie came from and how he ended up in her homeless shelter.

Bohjalian's exposition is dreadful. It frustrated me that he gave Laurel a mystery to solve, but gave the reader the answer on the very first page of the first chapter. It's more enticing if the reader is trying to solve the mystery alongside the characters, more clever to dangle the hints in front of us to see if we catch on to them.

The character development was just as weak as the exposition. The book jacket told me that Laurel was so traumatized by her almost-rape that she withdrew from society and began working at the homeless shelter as a means of dealing with it. However, this wasn't a part of the story at all, outside of the prologue, where it was briefly touched on in the form of a few sentences. As the story goes on, Laurel barely seems to be affected by the attack at all, except when Bohjalian explicitly states that she doesn't like having sex in the missionary position because it makes her think of her attackers and that she doesn't like to be in the state of Vermont on the anniversary of the attack.

None of the secondary characters had any depth whatsoever. Laurel's roommate, smitten neighbor, much older boyfriend, and shelter coworkers were all flat and acted without motivation or reason.

The biggest weakness in this book, though, is the supposed twist ending that much of the events, including the Gatsby connections and the fact that her boyfriend has two daughters, exist only in Laurel's head. This is a cheap way of ending the novel made especially problematic by the fact that Bohjalian had given these supposedly-imaginary characters their own scenes where they actually have their own thoughts, personalities, and interactions with real characters. If he wanted us to believe that these characters were non-existant, then we never should have seen them outside of their interactions with Laurel.

This book was such a terrible letdown, poorly structured and written with ho-hum prose. The entire time I was reading it, all I could think about was how it should have been written instead. ...less

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Debbie rated it:

(review of isbn 1400031664)

09/01/08

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I figured out the supposed "twist" as soon as I read the psychiatrist's notes. The effort taken to write them as genderless came off as odd and clunky.

The whole thing came off to me as disjointed and in need of editing. There were some glaring mistakes--a child eating a caramel apple is described as having made a mess with it and it being red like blood all over her face and hands...um, caramel is BROWN. Everyone is described, even right in the middle of dialogue where we ...more I figured out the supposed "twist" as soon as I read the psychiatrist's notes. The effort taken to write them as genderless came off as odd and clunky.

The whole thing came off to me as disjointed and in need of editing. There were some glaring mistakes--a child eating a caramel apple is described as having made a mess with it and it being red like blood all over her face and hands...um, caramel is BROWN. Everyone is described, even right in the middle of dialogue where we know all of their names, by their occupation: The waitress said blah blah blah. Blah blah blah, said the young social worker. And my favorite word of all (and apparently the author's as well) DOWAGER. Who has used that word in the last century? I was jolted out of the story each time.

An 11 year old child wonders what is really going on with Laurel (AKA The Social Worker) since she has noticed the "glimpses of darkness behind the veil," or some such nonsense. As the mother of an actual 11 year old, I can assure you that one would only notice a dark veil if the X Box is in use behind it. They could care less about the moody secrets of adults around them, except for how it affects them directly, such as if the adult is ordering pizza or is about to demand that chores or homework be finished. None of the characters in the book seem true to themselves, if that makes any sense. In the end I found I was indifferent to all of them.

The sad thing is, the premise was promising...a volunteer at a homeless shelter finds a box of photographs that belonged to a recently deceased resident. While looking through them, she comes upon a photograph of a young girl on a bike in a familiar landscape, and realizes it is a photograph of herself on the very day she was attacked and raped years before.

I could go on and on about the many ways this book grated on my nerves, but here are a few: Robert Buchanan sees a picture of a fictional housewife and decides to change his name to "Bobbie Crocker." Why the feminine spelling "Bobbie" instead of the masculine "Bobby?" Why was the homeless shelter repeatedly referred to as the acronym BEDS as if that was the actual name? I cringed every time I came across "BEDS." *cringing now*

Anyway, back to the name change. The newly minted Bobbie Crocker joins the army. The paragraph describing this is so poorly written that I will simply copy it here from page 295:

If the Army had any doubts about the mental health of a recruit whose moniker must have reminded them of a cake mix, they weren't sufficient to prevent them from allowing him to wade ashore at Omaha Beach in one of the very first waves behind the demolition teams. Bobbie would fight that year and into the next in France and Belgium and Germany, somehow escaping the war unscathed. Physically, anyway. He had an affair with a French woman who was in many ways even more scarred than he was, given how much of her family had died in the first German offensive in May 1940 and then fighting in North Africa in 1943. She lost two brothers, a cousin, and her father. He wanted to bring her back with him to the United States, but she wouldn't leave her family--the living and the dead.

The Army should have had doubts about his mental health because his last name was Crocker? Can you say run on sentence? Who edited this?

Somehow I resisted throwing the book against the wall at this point. I should not have fought the urge. Limping along to the most unbelievable, contrived and trite ending, the reader finds that *SURPRISE!* Laurel is the one in the psychiatrist's chair, and that most of the characters were invented by her crazed mind! Imagine that. Of course, the fact that all of the made-up characters had scenes without Laurel involved, and their own thoughts, actions and opinions make that plot twist ludicrous...but what did you expect from a book that takes the characters of The Great Gatsby and pretends they are real people? Until the end, anyway. Laurel is crazy! That's why she thinks the Gatsbys were her neighbors! Get the big twist there? *gag*

...less

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Jaime rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

07/13/07

bookshelves: 2007, general_fiction

Read in June, 2007

The first thing I did before I started this book was head to Wikipedia and read a summary of The Great Gatsby, since it’s been 12+ years since I read it, and it’s really an integral part of this book. I recommend that to anyone who picks this up.

I often start thinking about what I’m going to say about a book before I finish it. As I neared the end of this, my thoughts were “this wasn’t as good as Midwives or Water Witches“. Then, Bohjalian gives you a very M. Night Shyama...more

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Kate rated it:

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07/13/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I stayed interested throughout which says something. But it did get pretty repetitive at times. Maybe this is necessary for a book that's told from the perspective of a delusional person?

I am thankful that I watched The Great Gatsby recently otherwise I would've been lost on all the references and would've given up. And the photographs were very cool.

I am usually suspicious of male writers who try to write from women's perspectives. Especially because Bohjalian is a...more

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Wendy added it (review of isbn 1400047463)

08/24/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: fans of the dream sequence in the old TV show, Dallas.

This is the first book I've given no stars. And for a good reason -- it doesn't deserve any. With all the glowing reviews this book received, I expected something really, really good. Instead, I got something completely opposite. First of all, the writing stinks. I'd heard this book called "literary," but it's completely lacking in art. It's written on maybe a junior high level. Second, it's boring. NOTHING happens -- a young women goes here, talks to someone, goes there, talks to some...more

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Stacey rated it:

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06/24/08

Read in June, 2008

This is a very creative premise but egregiously flawed. Most of this book chronicles an investigation that the main character is conducting that links an old box of photos with a homeless man, her own troubled past, and The Great Gatsby. She was a lot more interested in where this all was leading than I was. I was sort of lazily interested in the Gatsby thread because I just read it, but the rest of it was so repetitive and tiresome I could only read 5-10 pages at a time. I did not like the ...more

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Maggi rated it:

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03/15/08

Read in March, 2008

This is the sixth book of Chris Bohjalian I have read, and I found the others to be quite good. Perhaps his prose wasn't as gorgeous as some writers, but his stories were gripping, and I turned the pages quickly, (which, if you think about it, is the main reason we want to read a book!). Tran-sister Radio was fascinating and sensitive. I read The Law of Similars in a weekend. Before You Know Kindness was complex and compelling. But despite the pull of the mysteriously wonderful photos that seem ...more

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Valerie rated it:

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12/15/07

Read in December, 2007

I read this book on the recommendation of a friend, and had no idea that there was a surprise twist at the end. As a mystery, I didn't feel it was very compelling, but aside from that the story was definitely interesting enough to keep me engaged. A quick refresher of The Great Gatsby on Wikipedia is a good idea if you read this book, as its characters appear in The Double Bind as well.

I thought that they were well-integrated into the book, and it was definitely an innovative idea on...more

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Jo Ann marked it as to-read (review of isbn 1400047463)

10/14/07

bookshelves: to-read

REWVIEW:
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 fic...more

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Darlene rated it:

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08/20/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in May, 2007

Not at all the book I thought I was getting. Far darker and more disturbing a story than the cover copy lead me to believe. I'm a fan of The Great Gatsby. I'm a fan of historical photography. I'm interested in mysteries.

I'm not interested in the details of women being brutalized over and over -- either physically or emotionally. I'm willing to believe it was unintentional on Bohjalian's part, but I couldn't help taking the thematic misogynistic overtones a little too personall...more

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Amy rated it:

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11/14/07

bookshelves: should-have-quit

Read in September, 2007

There were moments where I thought this books was really stupid. The main character was so dramatic at times, the plot seemed like it was trying to be more than it was only b/c the author was making the main character make such a big deal out of minimal things.
Turns out there was a reason for that. You don't find out until the very end (which you can predict near the end). The entire thing is explained on the last pages because it has to be completely written out, otherwise it's a book...more

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Jackie rated it:

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06/16/08

bookshelves: adult-fiction, tuesday-night-book-club

Read in June, 2008

Laurel, a young social worker in Vermont, has clearly been traumatized by a brutal and sadistic act of violence committed against her during her sophomore year in college. This story reminds the reader of the powerful ability of the mind to alter life's horrific events to allow a person to live day-to-day with nightmarish acts. Laurel is given photos taken by a homeless man and manipulates their meaning and subjects to meld and intertwine fiction and fact in more ways than one. A fictionalized J...more

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Sally rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

06/07/08

bookshelves: abandoned

Read in May, 2008

Good, good, nice bedtime reading. Bohjalian is talented, yet he, like Coupeland, creeps me out in his affinity to write from a female protagonist point of view? Why is this necessary? I'm loving all the golden era pictures and narration, however. This book is not destined for the abandoned shelf. No siree bob, we have a keeper folks. It's just short of fantastic...and I've yet to be able to put my finger on why. Could it be the romancing of male violence towards women? Perhaps. Updates to...more

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Janean rated it:

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08/19/08

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I'm torn between 2 and 3 stars, but after reading some other people's reviews, I'm going with the 2 because they brought up things that I didn't realize annoyed me until now.

I was excited to read this because of the twist I had heard about and I knew it had something to do with The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite novels.

Overall, I was disappointed.

As far as the twist, I think I caught it about 1/4 of the way through; I'm not bragging and I don't claim to...more

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Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

06/01/08

bookshelves: counseling, general-fiction

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Mike by: My dealer at Barnes and Noble
recommends it for: those on vacation

Because I loved "The Thirteenth Tale" my contact at Barnes and Noble was sure I would like this book by Bohjalian. He had heard the two books had many things in common. Unfortunately, they don't. Fortunately, I moderately liked this one for much different reasons. As others have written in their reviews, this book was not edited with any real sense of purpose or aid. It lacked for a skilled edit job here and there.

(This review contains no spoilers of any serious degree).
...more Because I loved "The Thirteenth Tale" my contact at Barnes and Noble was sure I would like this book by Bohjalian. He had heard the two books had many things in common. Unfortunately, they don't. Fortunately, I moderately liked this one for much different reasons. As others have written in their reviews, this book was not edited with any real sense of purpose or aid. It lacked for a skilled edit job here and there.

(This review contains no spoilers of any serious degree).

However, the author does something that I don't find very often: He cloaks the ending so completely that I had no idea what was coming until I stumbled on it. In fact, and this is a big nudge to anyone who is about to read it, don't just assume that the last few pages are footnotes or just acknowledgements. In there is the kernel of the story and it helps to make sense of the rest. It is worth getting to the end, as the ride has many bumps along the way and your mental capacity may not be up to it.

I recommend this book to be read on vacation where you can digest large clumps of it. That will make the action move faster. The characters are not as well defined as they usually are in novels of this magnitude, but the ending will clear up the reason for this.

Now to the few things I didn't like about the book. First, the plot moves too slowly and without as much conflict as there could and should have been. That is not true of the opening two chapters fortunately. I was hooked after them. But then, the book resembled a river that lazily spreads out after some fast and treacherous rapids. The entire way through, I kept waiting for more action or more insight, but neither came through.

Also, the author pricked one of my trial balloons: Using the third-person omnipotent from chapter to chapter. That, of course, is more acceptable than doing it in the same chapter, but it gets annoying because the reader is told things that a good writer would reveal through plot instead of through the thoughts of the characters. At least, that is how my brain would rather discover them. I can't imagine Tolkien, for instance, telling us about the dangers of "Old Man Willow" by giving us glimpses of Tom Bombadil's thought life. I'm not even sure I could follow Bombadil's thoughts.

Normally I finish a novel in a day or two. This took me two weeks because I didn't get swept along with it and just read a chapter every evening before bed.

Also, the writer uses profanity in such a way that shows he is not familiar with its usage and probably threw it in because the characters would have used it. It didn't add to the story.

My biggest excitement was the understanding that the writer had about homeless people and their struggle for personhood. That was worth the book....less

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Diane rated it:

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03/16/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Diane by: A Goodreads member's list
recommends it for: Lovers of syspense, intrigue, a gripping story

Whoa! This book grabbed me from the first page of the Prologue and kept me involved until - yes, I finished it bleary-eyed and wide awake in the wee small hours of the night trailing the same day I started reading it. It's mystery and suspense and a puzzle. The references to Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby stand alone, but I did reach for my old copy of The Great Gatsby and skim a couple of sections out of curiousity. The black & white photographs included in the story fit and seemed real, a...more

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Anne rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

02/02/08

Read in February, 2008

The Double Bind is a fascinating exploration of memory and mental-illness. The book opens with the main character Laurel's brutal attack while riding her bike on a deserted road. Years later, she works at a homeless shelter and meets a schizophrenic man, Bobbie Crocker, who has a collection of brilliant photographs. When Bobbie dies, Laurel finds herself obsessed with figuring out where the photographs came from and who the man behind the pictures was. In an interesting plot device Laurel happen...more

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Mary rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047463)

12/31/07

bookshelves: mary-beth-s-favorites

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: friends

This novel is intriguing, heartbreaking and beautiful. Starting with a violent act, the story takes us through the life of the victim Lauren, a privileged young adult who has since dedicated her life to helping the homeless. After the death of a homeless man named Bobbie, Lauren's life intertwines with the descendants of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in present day.

Bobbies only known legacy is a box of secretive photographs and negatives. Lauren recognizes the homes in the photographs fr...more

The Double Bind

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