Case Study is a literary jigsaw puzzle of a novel that plays with ideas of identity and truth, fiction and reality. Stylistically the story is portrayed as a combination of found materials and research and technically and way the narrative shifts from ‘truth’ to ‘subjective truth’ is impressive. The setting is ’60s London, real incidents and people are woven into the narrative and add to the pseudo-documentary feel.
The main part of the narrative is set in the mid nineteen sixties when a reserved young woman begins writing a series of notebooks in which she chronicles her conviction that the egotistical psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite drove her sister to suicide. In her pursuit of Braithwaite she creates an alter ego called Rebecca and becomes one of his patients.
The author of the book is given the notebooks and uses them as a counterpart to his own research into the life and career of the self-serving, self-created therapist Braithwaite who sees himself as a rival to the other notorious therapist of the era R D Laing.
When the story begins it feels like a psychological thriller, but this is quite misleading as the narrative instead follows the increasing fragmentation of the identities of the notebook’s author, her repressed straight laced good girl is increasingly dominated by the more worldly ‘creation’ Rebecca who slowly but surely begins to assert herself as the narrator is overtaken by unexpected and delayed grief for her dead sister and her frustration with the reality of her repressed and depressingly narrow reality, and a vaguely defined desire to end everything.
Case Study is a fascinating but ultimately frustrating novel that vividly recreates the changing attitudes of an era, and raises some provocative questions about truth and identity, but it lacks the satisfaction of a traditional mystery narrative where there is a clear resolution. The problematic nature of truth and fiction make a compelling centrepiece to the story but they create a puzzle that has no solution.
Reviewed by Tessa Chudy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am the author of four novels, the Booker shortlisted His Bloody Project, Booker longlisted Case Study, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau and The Accident on the A35.
I was named Author of the Year in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2017 and have appeared at festivals and events in the UK, Korea, Canada, the US, Russia, Estonia, Spain, France, Germany, China and quite a few other places.
I was born in Kilmarnock in Scotland and now live in Glasgow. I’ve previously lived and worked in Prague, Porto, Bordeaux and London.
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