Dr Neruda's Cure For Evil [Import] [Paperback]

Rafael Yglesias (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 831 pages
• Publisher: Black Swan (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552997269
• ISBN-13: 978-0552997263
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,699,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rafael Yglesias is an American novelist and screenwriter, the son of writers Jose and Helen Yglesias. He dropped out of high school upon publication of his first novel, Hide Fox, And All After in 1972 at age 17. He is the author of nine novels, including A Happy Marriage, winner of the 2009 Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize, Dr. Neruda's Cure For Evil and Fearless, which he adapted for the screen. He also wrote the screenplays for Death And The Maiden, Les Miserables, From Hell, and Dark Water. He has two sons: Matthew Yglesias, a Fellow at the Center For American Progress, public intellectual and author of Heads In The Sand; Nicholas Yglesias is a fantasy novelist who has recently completed Succession, the first of a three volume trilogy. Rafael lives in the city of his birth, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Deep, June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dr. Neruda's Cure for Evil (Paperback)

I'm a psychologist, and especially enjoy books with psychological content. This book provides remarkable insight into psychoanalytic thought and human complexity and fallibility. It's interesting and a good read, actually quite exciting at some points. I loved it!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, incredible, incredible - but not for everyone., January 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Dr. Neruda's Cure for Evil (Paperback)

I'm a voracious reader with high standards, and this is one of my five favorite novels of all time. It's one of those books I can't wait to forget so I can read it again.

The fact that I'm a therapist in training may partly explain why I disagree with some other reviewers who find this book pretentious, pedantic, or silly. Neruda presents the story as a psychiatrist documenting three case histories, so the narrator mostly addresses the reader as a fellow mental heatlh professional and doesn't bother to define terms or concepts. I can see how this could alienate readers who don't have the assumed knowledge base.

However, if you're familiar with, or just interested in, psychology, this book is exquisitely pleasurable. You don't have to trudge through tiring explanations; Neruda assumes you understand the basics and doesn't hesitate to leap right into the complicated stuff. You may even find that, like me, your own beliefs and theories are challenged and expanded by Yglesias.

This book reminds me a bit of The Name of the Rose, another of my top 5 all-time greatest. Remember Eco's passages of untranslated Latin and abundant references to medieval obscurities? If, like me, you didn't major in medieval studies, you probably feel like you deserve 16 credit hours by the time you've gotten through it. I can hardly get through a page without consulting The Key to The Name of the Rose, which explains all the references.

No such key exists for Dr. Neruda's Cure for Evil, but I think Neruda's book is more accessible than Eco's. If you want to learn more about psychology and you're willing to Google a lot of terminology, I think you'll be able to appreciate it. If you *do* work in mental health, I think you'll adore it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking but ultimately shallow, April 16, 2002

By 

Romantic Anna (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dr. Neruda's Cure for Evil (Paperback)

The first and second divisions of the book are incredibly well written. The dialogue, settings and explanations of the genuinely awful things that occur to the main character and his patient are enthralling. The reason I can't rate this novel higher is that the final third of the book, while interesting, does not capture me as being in sync with the rest of the novel. We are supposed to believe that Dr. Neruda, a man who spent most of his life up until that point helping children who suffered tortures, would behave in a basically evil way to 'cure' two socially unredeemable characters. I can't buy it and frankly, I don't think the author was very good at describing his concept of evil.

According to this author, the likes of Hitler and Stalin weren't evil, but the two businesspeople Neruda hunts after in a chilling manner are. Strange, but true. Granted, these characters are incredibly dislikeable, and Halley in particular is the least engaging character in the book. Perhaps Yglesias' failure to make these two characters intriguing is what emotionally distanced me from the finale of the novel. I was left thinking, is the author trying to show that evil is as evil does, that there is a certain banality and randomness to true evil? If so, aren't those obvious points already?

The characters that are built up and introduced in parts 1 and 2 of the novel were fantastic and quite real. What Yglesias does to some of them in part 3 is deeply boring.