The Map of True Places: A Novel

After having stopped reading full novels since I was 14, I decided to dive back into reading and Holy smokes! I'm so glad this book got me back into reading! This book will mess with your mind just as much as the plot messed with Zee's. I highly recommend it!!

It has been said, that those who pursue a career in Psychiatry, often subconsciously do so to master something within themselves. Zee Finch, also known as 'Trouble' in her youth, is a classic example of someone with psychological baggage, seeking resolution, when she became a psychotherapist. Zee had struggled with her mother's Bipolar illness as a child, culminating into the final, unthinkable, act---that of suicide, for which Zee was the witness. Zee is working, and honing her therapy skills, under the direction of a highly regarded professional mentor, and personal friend, Mattei, when the unthinkable happens. Zee is, once again, confronted with suicide; a death that shatters all of her perceptions of herself as a healer. But was it suicide? Something about the case doesn't ring true and Zee is helpless to stop the negative ruminations. While trying to cope with this tragic event, Zee reconnects with her father who is far more ill than she had realized. He recently kicked out his partner, Melville, who had been dedicated to supervising his care, as Parkinson's disease ravages his body and mind, with rapidly escalating dementia. In the midst of her, already staggering personal chaos, Zee struggles with all the consequences of parenting-a-parent, while also realizing that family secrets abound. Do these secrets involve her mother? Why is her father suddenly rejecting Melville? I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The characters are deep, emotive, and believable, as are the life difficulties so beautifully rendered. Having worked in Psychiatry for over two decades, myself, and now dealing with a parent with dementia, I felt deeply moved by Barry's exploration of such themes---the heartbreaks, those moments of joy that you want to freeze forever, because you know they are so fleeting. She captures them all, with extraordinary prose. This is my first Barry novel, but I'm about to order 'The Lace Reader.' If it is anywhere near as captivating as, 'The Map of True Places,' I'm in for another compelling read.

Brunonia Barry has done it again! I enjoyed her first book, "The Lace Reader" and was thrilled to discover that Mrs. Barry had published another. As in the first, the characters are compelling, the story is completely different, mysteries keep the reader guessing, and a fantastic setting...Salem, Massachusetts. It was great fun "taking a trip back home" through this book, but even more so than Mrs. Barry's first. She easily portrayed the "New England attitude" through her characters, and threw a few extras that a true "North Shore" resident would certainly appreciate ("Lynn, Lynn...). My only complaint? I currently live in the Washington D.C. area and now I'm craving a roast beef sandwich and fries from Kelly's in Revere! :) Great job! Loved it, recommend it and will continue to do so! J.R. Reardon author, Confidential Communications (pub. 2008) and Dishonored (pub 2010)

Novel set in Salem, MA about Zee Finch, a woman in her 30's who comes to her hometown from Boston, where she'd been working as a psychologist. Her father has Parkinson's disease and at his request, his longtime boyfriend Melville had kept from her how seriously ill Finch was. But now Finch has kicked Melville out of the house over some old slight and Zee is left to try to figure out how to care for him. She also is mourning a patient of hers, a bi-polar woman named Lilly who committed suicide and reminds Zee so much of her own mother that lines become blurred. Zee's engagement crumbles as she stays away from Boston longer and realizes that she really didn't want to marry Michael anyway. I really enjoyed this story, although I did see the plot twist coming from a mile away. I like the author's writing style, blending a bit of the mystical with the practical and capturing the essence of Salem, lots of literary and historical references too. Some of the characters from her previous book, The Lace Reader, are briefly mentioned also and I hope she writes more stories set here. Her characters, even the minor ones, are wonderfully drawn--I could clearly see them in my mind's eye and felt I knew them very well by the end of the book. In short, a great escape of a novel that leaves you with a little something to think about while you're enjoying the ride.

The Map of True Places is a compelling novel that subtly captures and holds the reader until you suddenly realize you are immersed in the story and characters. The book is superbly written, with well-developed characters, smooth transitions between people and places, and pacing that transparently changes aligned with the situation. Zee, the main character of the book, is an accomplished psychiatrist with a growing new practice, has a beloved mentor and a handsome successful fiancé. Zee is also an insecure, vulnerable, and lonely young woman, haunted by the suicide of her manic depressive mother when Zee was a child. When a patient of Zee's, a bi-polar young mother commits suicide, Zee runs away back home. There, she discovers that her father is estranged from his long-time partner and his Parkinson's disease is much worse than she knew. Deciding to stay and care for her father, Zee takes a leave of absence from work and her life. More secure in her childhood environment, Zee begins to explore her feelings of guilt, impatience, estrangement, and loss. Her interactions with the people in her hometown are wonderfully done, providing the reader with insights about Zee as well as the richness these characters add to the story. Zee begins to feel that something wasn't quite right about the suicide of her patient, which parallels a deeper feeling about something not quite right about her mother's death. In the midst of all this, Zee breaks up with her fiancé, falls in love with a very different man, re-establishes a relationship with her father's partner, and manages to improve her father's health to a point where he can live at home with caretakers. Eventually, Zee comes to a better understanding about the forces driving her patient and the choices her patient made, which leads to a surprisingly violent dénouement. Only the reader, not Zee, discovers the secret aspects of the suicide of Zee's mother, done in a hauntingly delicate way. The Map of True Places is an enchanting novel in many ways, and will hopefully achieve a well-deserved place on the best sellers list.

This is another moving yet mysterious tale from Brunonia Barry, who returns to Salem and some familiar characters in this wonderful novel. I loved Zee, a therapist whose life was shaped by her own mother's suicide. When she returns to her childhood home to care for her father, a rapidly deteriorating Parkinson's patient, she is forced to assess her life and her understanding of herself and others. The underlying mysteries are not difficult to unravel, but it is in finding some level of truth that Zee also finds herself. Though this story was not as dark as The Lace Reader: A Novel, it was no less emotionally compelling. Definitely a must read!