Perlman's Ordeal

Sometimes I sympathize with those authors whose first novel is brilliantly original and alive. After all, they have expectations to fulfill that must be daunting. They must fret whether the second book will be thought as good, fret that readers will find it too similar and say they are formulaic or too dissimilar and feel betrayed They must fret that they will become a one-book-wonder. Brooks Hansen's first novel, The Chess Garden, was such an original and inventive book, that he must have been a real fretnik. Judging by his second book, Perlman's Ordeal, he needn't fret anymore. This book has its similarities to the Chess Garden. It is fantastic in the original sense of the word. It is saturated with myth and fable. It is delightfully original. It is also very different. Perlman, the protagonist in this book, is a crabbed and limited in his personal life as Dr. Uyterhoven was generous and open. Perlman finds his security in routine and in not taking risks. Dr. Uyterhoven would have smothered in the small life Perlman carved out for himself. However, Perlman is forced out of his routine and cast bewilderingly adrift in Atlantis, of all places. This Atlantis, however, is not the real Atlantis as Dr. Uyterhoven's Antipodes are The Antipodes. This Atlantis is in the mind of his patient, Sylvie Blum -- or more accurately, in Nina the "shard" personality that has taken over Sylvie Blum.Dr. Perlman is an eminent practitioner of "clinical suggestion," the science of curing people through suggestion during a hypnogogic state. He is most definitely NOT a mere hypnotist nor something so bizarre as a mesmerist. Sylvie Blum is brought to him, completely out of protocol, since he prefers patients to ask for his services themselves...meaning patients who are ready for suggestion and success. She is dehydrated, refusing water and positively phobic in her fear of water. She is brought to him, sedated and is being forcefully hydrated. He is upset and expects failure since this patient was brought to him in such a disorderly way. However, he is intrigued when he brings Sylvie to consciousness (he thinks) and discovers that there is a healthy young girl inside there who not only doesn't fear water but practically craves it. Unfortunately, that healthy young girl says her name is Nina. There begins the tale and what a tale it is, taking you from late 19th century London to the days when gods and goddesses walked the earth with humanity. The ordeal is Perlman's struggle within himself, for he must break free of his routines and his regimens of treatment in order to successfully treat his patient. For once in his life, he must let events take their course and go along for the ride. And when it all comes back to him, when he must finish the tale, what will he do? Will he follow his regimen and his protocols, his science, or will he let himself fall into the story and be carried by it? Who will win Dr Perlman, art or science?

I picked up "Perlman's Ordeal" because the review indicated that the main character was crazy about music. Hansen handled the musical underpinnings quite well. I found it delightful that Perlman's favorite composer (the late Alex Barrett) was giv- en to sessions of "Nonsense" music in which he exercised his imagination through improvisation, even to the point of unlearning what the conser- vatories had taught him. Doctor Perlman, who lived in a scientific straightjacket of his own, desper- ately needed some "nonsense" in his own life. Enter Sylvie/Nina. The desperately unhappy and suppressed Sylvie has seemingly been taken over by a channeled spirit named Nina, whose invisible companion is Oona, an Atlantean princess. Nina cannot be intimidated by Doctor Perlman. Indeed, she so easily wraps him around her finger that soon he is escorting her to Mme. Barrett's house (which, significantly enough, Doctor Perlman wants to go to because his favorite composer grew up there). With encouragement from Mme. Barrett and Lord Stanley (an actor who is also her uncle), Nina's story about Oona blossoms into an elaborate play at which several of Mme. Barrett's friends serve as audience membrs. I found it very hard to out this book down once I'd started it. Doctor Perlman's "ordeal" was anything but an ordeal for this reader.

Brooke Hansen's second solo novel completely satisfies its own ambition - the most we can fairly ask of any work of art. Though "Perlman's Ordeal" touches on the otherworldly, the rug is promptly pulled from under the reader's feet and we are gently reminded that this is not a novel about Atlantis or reincarnation. It's an astoundingly elegant portrayal of a simple sequence of events: Dr. Perlman meets a patient he can't easily handle, and the confidence he invests in himself and in his strict ideology is broken.Of course, this shiftiness has the slight potential to let down a bit. The reader is easily sucked in by the intruigue and grandeur of this patient's story - is she harboring the spirit of a girl from Atlantis? Hansen so beautifully depicts Perlman's cautious approach to the question, and we share the doctor's frustration when his calculated effort is run aground. The girl, named Sylvie but insisting on "Nina", enchants Perlman's aquaintences with her elaborate story.As the child's new friends long to hear more and more of her curious history, so does the reader. The effect is thus quite alarming when, alongside Perlman, we are nearly swayed to her growing camp of devotees. Unwilling to re-think the matter, Hansen forces us to, quietly, insistently. We have shared Perlman's ordeal unwittingly.In this strange calm the reader might feel a bit robbed. He shouldn't - "Perlman's Ordeal" contains some of the most beautiful prose I've read in a long time. Hansen writes with confidence and style. His characters, Perlman in particular, are deeply layered and very complex.The end result is more subtle than awe-inspiring, more Kubrick than Cameron. It's certainly a winner though - a quiet, odd little winner.

I anxiously awaited this book, after having read the Chess Garden and Boone (his other two books for adults) and am not disappointed! It is a brilliantly told tale of a Dr. who's entire belief system is challenged in a seven day timespan by a young girl brought to him for hypnotherapy treatment. This book soars - and no matter how carefully I read Mr. Hansen's work, the story is so rich and layered, I return to his books again and again and always come away with more than before!