Scene - Blogs - Tulsa Metro Reads and Talks Part I The Double Bind

Tulsa Metro Reads -- and Talks, Part I: The Double Bind
Published: 5/11/2008 8:13 AM
Last Modified: 5/11/2008 8:13 AM

Chris Bohjalian’s “The Double Bind” is unlike this author’s other best-selling novels for several reasons. For one, it is more of a plot-driven psychological mystery than his other work – the story of a young women recovering from a brutal attack, who discovers a potential link to her own past through the photographs left behind by a homeless man.

That last bit of plot description leads to the other reason why the book is unusual. One of Bohjalian’s inspirations for the book was just such a cache of photographs, which were one of the few earthly possessions of a man named Bob Campbell.

Earlier in his life, during the 1960s and ‘70s, Campbell and his camera had been a part of the New York City arts scene, capturing images of musicians in performance and at leisure, of actors, of street scenes. Campbell’s life ended in a Vermont facility for the homeless, and the director there shared Campbell’s photographs with Bohjalian.

So a major character – or, at least, a major presence – in “The Double Bind” is that of a photographer and the work he left behind.

It is in these images that Laurel Estabrook, the book’s main character, sees a bit of her past – places that she knows from childhood as being private mansions where something tragic took place, and that were converted into the country club Laurel would occasionally visit.

The familiarity of these places, and the murky history she recalls about them – a history that includes infidelity, accidental death, murder – set Laurel on a path to retrace the photographer’s life, even though it seems everyone she meets, friends and strangers alike, are determined to get the photographs away from her.

Bohjalian’s book includes a number of photographs – the ones made by Bob Campbell. Some are of familiar subjects, such as the actor Paul Sorvino and his daughter Mira, Chuck Berry and guitar on some stage. Others are portraits (the frontspiece portrait of a young woman, who is tantalizingly familiar, but I can’t summon up a name for her), some are life-on-the-street shots, such as one of men playing chess in New York City park.

Many novels over the years have incorporated photographs into their texts. These range from W.S. Sebald’s densely and beautifully written books, such as “Austerlitz,” to the Ed McBain police novels that feature a recurring criminal character known as “The Deaf Man,” who likes to tease the detectives of the 87th Precinct with cryptic, visual clues as to the next step in his cunning criminal plan.

Marisha Pessl’s “Special Topics in Calamity Physics” took the idea further, which the author’s own illustrations of various characters and scenes in the story, purportedly drawn by the book’s main character.

In all these instances, the photographs (or drawings) are an integral part of the story. In “Austerlitz,” the images are presented as talismans, physical evidence of the narrator’s efforts to make concrete sense out of the nebulous search for identity and meaning. In “Let’s Hear It for the Deaf Man,” the photos are yet another clue in the case, something the reader can puzzle over with the detectives of the story.

But in “The Double Bind,” the photographs that punctuate these pages are random. The specific images that drive Laurel Estabrook on her journey to discover the truth about the photographer and the connection to her own life are not shown.

Rather than pull you into the story, the photographs in “The Double Bind” knock you out of the story – if only for a moment.

It is the same effect that is produced in the first few pages of Bohjalian’s novel, when you come across the names “George Wilson” and “Jay Gatsby” in a list of famous killers and their victims.

The incongruity of the photographs used in “The Double Bind” to the story being told is, I think, one of Bohjalian’s own clues as to what is going on under the surface of the story he’s telling, setting up one aspect of the novel’s plot (we don’t want to say more, out of deference to those who have not finished the book).

What do you think about the photographs in “The Double Bind,” and about the way Bohjalian has structured the novel?

Reader Comments

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John M. Hutto (5 years ago)

First, I am surprised that no one has posted for this entry. I am an avid reader. The ending knocked me for a loop, and I am still trying to work the evidence of the ending into some sort of understanding of the apparent story I saw as I read. I would like to read other opinions of this strange story.

John M. Hutto (5 years ago)

Here, on may 24, I am surprised and not surprised, that no one else has commented, especially after the TCCL live interview with the author, and then your article announcing the blog.This is a bestselling book, too.If you had put it in a sports blog it might have drawn interest.

JONIOKMREADER (5 years ago)

I am unaccustomed to entering into blogs or chats but I had to respond about the "Double Bind". I read the book 3 weeks ago and am still reeling from the ending. Our minature reading group read it and we all are still stunned and continue to discuss it. From the
beginning when I had to assure myself that the Great Gatsby was fiction and how unique to tie the two together, to the questioning of "were the photos real?" I was kept on edge. Its been a long time since a book has caught me so off guard.

I will try to enter into more discussions as you post them. Thank JJN

Margaret Gwinn (5 years ago)

Sure would like to read a review with a chapter by chapter breakdown of clues leading up to surprise ending. This book baffled me more than any book that I have ever read-I actually thought about it for days afterward.

Louix Escobar (5 years ago)

Suspending disbelief seems to be one of the literary ploys Mr. Bohjalian handles best in this work. Like some of your readers, I had to keep reminding myself characters from the Great Gatsby are fictional. Elegant prose and engaging plot makes this a must read!

Shirley Gidley (5 years ago)

I was delighted to have the opportunity with Double Bind to enter the Gatsby world again and reeled at the ending of the book. At the Schusterman-Benson Library, we had a book discussion featuring Double Bind. All of us together, including co-workers from our Nathan Hale branch, put our heads together to figure out what happened. I found the book so thought-provoking and interesting to discuss with other readers. The book is hard to discuss, however, unless all have finished it, since it would be easy to spoil their reading experience.

Marianne Haddad (5 years ago)

I am a big fan of Mr. Bohjalian's novels and although it took me awhile to get to this novel, he didn't let me down! I thought it was rather brilliant the way he juxtaposed Fitgerald's The Great Gatsby
with his story. I truly got caught up in the whole plot of this young woman in denial regarding the seriousness of her trauma, her obsession with the photographs and her obsession with the "Gatsby" lives and how they might fit with her own life as well as the homeless photographer's life. A very clever book that I will think about for a long time... in fact, it deserves a second read (if only I can find the time!).

Marilyn Bentley (5 years ago)

My book group at the South Broken Arrow Library read "The Double Bind", and it created an interesting discussion. We were all blown away by the twist in the ending, but we were also fascinated by how the author interwove "The Great Gatsby". As we read the book, we knew that "The Great Gatsby" was fiction, but Chris Bohjalian was so skillful in his writing that it made us doubt ourselves. Some even checked to be sure "The Great Gatsby" was fiction. It definitely makes you want to read it again for clues.
Marilyn B

James Watts (5 years ago)

I think that the Gatsby material in the book is, like the photographs, one of the clues that hint about what is going on in "The Double Bind."

It's designed to make you a little suspicious of what you're reading. As several of you have said, Bohjalian's way of incorporating the Gatsby stuff into his story was so effective that you had to remind yourself that Gatsby is a fiction.

And, after a while, one ceases to try to separate "fact" from "fiction," and to accept what is happening on the page in front of you as "truth."

As the novel progresses, that dividing line begins to blur, as characters Laurel meets have names that correspond to those of characters in Gatsby. Past intrudes on the present, reality and fantasy overlap in even more disconcerting ways.

It's the same thing with the photographs -- we expect the images included in the book to have a direct bearing on the story being told. Otherwise, why have pictures in a novel? But the pictures that drive the plot -- the subject of Laurel's obsession -- aren't the ones we see. So, maybe, we should begin to wonder if they "exist" to anyone but Laurel......

Karl G. Siewert (5 years ago)

I was drawn into Double Bind first by the Gatsby connections. I'd recently re-read that novel, and I enjoyed watching the author interweave that fiction with his own. This kind of playing with the real and unreal is something I've always enjoyed reading.

As I continued, I found that the photographs were another hook drawing me further in. I'm an amateur photographer, and I was impressed by the quality of the images. I saw them not as illustrations, but as interesting objects which were not intended to stand for anything in the story, but perhaps to set a mood for the chapter to come.

Perhaps it's a sign of my obliviousness, but the twist ending came as quite a shock to me! I quite agree that it's one I may read again, just to watch for the clues.

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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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