TEST
When I read the raves about The Verificationist earlier this year, I bought a copy for myself and set it aside for a time when I needed a really great read to pull me out of the doldrums. This past weekend I decided I needed a boost and read it. Expecting both an odd read and a great one, I realized after I finished that the book only met half of my expectations – it was certainly strange.
At a pancake dinner Tom arranged for his fellow therapists, he is prevented from starting a food fight by colleague Bernhardt, a big bear of a man who restrains him physically. While being held, Tom has an out-of-body experience or what we would probably call a nervous breakdown. As he flies above the patrons of the pancake house, at times joined by nubile waitress Rebecca and a colleague or two, he describes what he sees, colored by his professional background, and recalls moments from his past.
While I wish I could say Tom was in the throes of existential angst, that would imply too much gravitas to his experience. While some of these experiences are interesting in an embarrassing way, the book adds up to far less than the sum of its parts. The premise is certainly novel, but reading the book gave me a squeamish feeling as though I was a voyeur privy to the pathetic thoughts of a middle-aged man.
The Verificationist is filled with neuroses and insecurities; whether true or not, Tom shares his thoughts on which of his colleagues are having affairs, and reveals the state of his marriage, which seems to have stalled when he and his wife Jane didn’t have children. The space devoted in the story to the spare room in their house which has never been painted is a strong metaphor for their unfulfilled desires and unmet needs. And, in a strangely moving passage, Tom recounts the time when Jane confronted him over a possible affair with a colleague he now suspects is having an affair with Bernhardt. What makes the scene both strange and moving is that the confrontation occurs while Tom is going to the bathroom. We experience his embarrassment of the smells and sounds of moving his bowels as his wife watches.
In a later instance, after Tom has provided his more than thumbnail sketches of each of his colleagues, we learn that Tom suspects one of the most eminent among them, a gynecologist-turned-therapist, who is also an alcoholic, is about to embark on a sexual relationship with a younger, female colleague. He describes the body language, posing, dialogue, and sexual politics of their upcoming congress in incredible detail, but then, the book is filled with Faulkner-esque sentences that seemingly go on forever, just as I have attempted to do in this sentence.
The Verificationist, despite its buzz and promising premise, seemed a self-indulgent journey. It reads more like middle-age melodrama than anything else, and if that is perhaps the point, I guess I missed it.
Grade: C-
Book Type: Alternate Reality
Sensuality: N/A
Review Date: 28/07/00
Publication Date: 2001
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.