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For the first 200 pages or so of The Alienist,
I was actually thrilled, I thought I had actually found the real
thing by an American mystery writer and that I would have to revise
the harsh criticism displayed in the review dedicated to
The Killing Game. (By the way, I was
flabbergasted when I found out since that
one of my favorite mystery writers, Elizabeth George, is in fact an
American! Unbelievable... But after reflection, it does not
change
what I wrote in the above-mentioned review. Thinking that George is
British is apparently a common mistake: all of her novels take place in
England and definitely have the unmistakable British touch: I read
on her
web
site that she makes frequent trips to
London and has an apartment, excuse-me!, I
meant a flat, there...).
But back to Caleb Carr and his Alienist.
At the beginning, I was favorably impressed: the first chapter
mentions the funerals of Theodore Roosevelt, in 1919. The narrator,
John Moore, a journalist for the Times,
recalls the series of events that brought
back together three former college friends:
himself, Roosevelt and the psychiatrist (alienist) Laszlo Kreizler,
in 1896.
At the turn of last century, Theodore
Roosevelt is the head of the NY police
department and has decided to eradicate corruption from within the
police ranks. One night, Kreizler sends for his friend Moore: the
mutilated body of a young male prostitute has been discovered on
Williamsburg Bridge. The murder of a boy-whore (when their existence
was hardly acknowledged) didn't call for a police investigation back
then. But Kreizler, who suspects a serial-killer behind this ghastly
murder that he has connected with a
former one, insists that Roosevelt let him form
his own team of "untouchables" and find the man responsible for the
crimes.
The main originality of the novel resides in
the fact that the enquiry takes place when forensic sciences were
just beginning to emerge. When relying on fingerprints was
considered audacious (The French had just discovered a system based
on records of measurements of different parts of the body that was
itself revolutionary) and when DNA identification was still unheard
of, the particulars of an investigation were an entirely different
matter...
Laszlo Kreizler, who invents the concept of
"profiler" in the course of this novel, believes that people are
determined by their early childhood experiences and rejects the idea
held by his contemporaries that a man can exercise his free-will. He
also believes that true insanity is rare, and that most behavioral
dysfunctions can be cured provided their cause is discovered.
The depiction of Manhattan
at the eve of the twentieth century, when the
statue of Liberty was brand new and when you only walked in
lower-east-side if you had a death
wish, accounts
for a truly fascinating atmosphere. Unfortunately, the praise stops
here... Somewhere in the middle of the book, the novel loses its
pace and what started like a promising and
entertaining mystery becomes your-average-serial-killer-à-la-Jack-the-Ripper-best-seller.
Was Carr rushed by his publishers? It seems that most of the threads
he skillfully laid came down to a disappointing unraveling: Carr
built the foundations for interesting scientific explanations and
ended-up with some unconvincing pseudo-psychological stuff.
If the character of the alienist is
interesting and complex, I found that the narrator was a bad
impersonation of doctor Watson. His lack of insight was sometimes
tedious and his forgetting of details crucial to the enquiry not credible (He is a journalist for God's sake! He's not
supposed to be forgetful...). I've read that Caleb Carr's Angel
of Darkness is written from the point of view of another
character already present in The Alienist (Stevie Taggert)
and that a third book will be presented from the perspective of Sara
Howard (the stereotypical feminist character). Great idea in itself,
but multiplying the points of views doesn't make up for
half-interesting stories. It partially explains why some characters
are not as complex as others but not all readers are ready to
purchase several books in order to have a fair knowledge of all the
characters involved in the first one. I for instance will probably
not read the sequels: there are better mysteries out there...
A last remark: The short sentences featured on
the cover and meant to describe a novel briefly are designed to sell
the book so you can't expect them to be something less than
hyperbolic, but the one on the back of the paperback edition of
The Alienist takes the cake: "the reading experience of a
lifetime". Come on! Are you kidding me? Please,
don't make the Alienist the reading experience of your
lifetime, or you'll have failed your life as a reader! Read Umberto
Eco instead, or even better, read many books
including
or not
The Alienist and make
your own opinion!
Rating:  
© Discussing Books,
08/23/2002 |
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