Customer Reviews

August

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read this book while on holiday in Goa, India and I must say that it kept me spellbound from start to finish. What a page-turner this novel is! If you're at all interested in the workings of the human mind and if you want to see what complex psychotherapy is all about, then read this. I feel sorry for the reader who gave this book only one star, complaining that nothing happens. The story told is a masterpiece of psychotherapy-writing and should be included as a required text in psychotherapy institutes'training programs.

A really wonderful book about therapy and the power of the therapeutic relationship. Recommend highly to anyone in therapy or any mental health professional. Sophisticated, Intense, Fun reading.

I first read AUGUST at its hardcover publication, some 20 years ago, and it still holds up as an enthralling, gripping, story. Even the second time around, I couldn't stop reading to find out, at a new level, how the characters got from beginning to end... even though I knew what that end was. It's a unique additional bonus that it makes you realize how your own memories work to influence your present. You can be reading it just for the story line.... and still have incredible 'Aha's!'

I first read AUGUST at its hardcover publication, some 20 years ago, and it still holds up as an enthralling, gripping, story. Even the second time around, I couldn't stop reading to find out, at a new level, how the characters got from beginning to end... even though I knew what that end was. It's a unique additional bonus that it makes you realize how your own memories work to influence your present. You can be reading it just for the story line.... and still have incredible 'Aha's!'

The patient, Dawn, wants to tape the analysis. This is a novel about fear of rejection. It is the theme. Dawn's presenting problem is her love for her first psychiatrist, a man. Now she is seeing a female analyst. August is, of course, the month for analysts to have vacations. Patients suffer, we know, (Woody Allen).

One wonders, has Judith Rossner settled on 'hot' topics-- date rapes, Siamese twins, psychoanalysis-- in her writing? What is it about these somewhat outsider themes that is of interest to the author? Do actual cases do the work of devising a plot and a setting?

The new analyst agrees not to terminate therapy with Dawn. The patient is to make that decision. Time passes and in college now, the patient, Dawn Henley, informs her analyst, Dr. Shinefeld, that she is a nervous wreck. The author conveys perfectly the patient's neediness.

The therapist, Lulu Shinefeld, had a middle class childhood, growing up on West End Avenue. Dawn becomes for Lulu a sort of analytic daughter. Lulu feels that Dawn could embody the happiness fantasy.

Concepts of dependency and connections are illustrated by Dawn and her natural and adoptive parents and Lulu with her husbands, children, parents, and friends. Psychoanalysis is a promising arena for the playing out of complications and misunderstandings. In analysis motives are under scrutiny. The parallel paths of the patient and her analyst scaffold this well-paced and interesting novel.

I just finished reading August as I finished my training as a clinical social worker. Perhaps you have to be in the mental health field to truly appreciate this book, but I found it compelling and very well written. The characters Dawn and Dr. Shinefeld were rich and real. A must if you are in or do therapy!

This novel tells a concomitant tale of a psychoanalyst and and her patient, a young woman who she is analyzing. Both lives are juxtaposed, making this book interesting and giving it a page-turning quality. The book is quite readable in an easy and fun sense.

This is not only a great overall veiw of anaylsis, but also of life and the complexity of human beings. I would highly recomend this book to anyone.

I read this book my second year of college since it was recommended by my psychology professor. The book is interesting but at times overwhelming as young Dawn goes on an emotional journey to find herself. Dawn exhibits classic casses of transference and depression, as she works with her therapist to use her past in helping her present and future.
I recommend this book to any psychology enthusiast, although I have to give it 4 stars because its somewhat dry.

This is my favorite book by Judith Rossner. If you're psychologically-minded, this is a must-read.