Customer Reviews

The Other Side of You: A Novel

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Dr David McBride is a psychiatrist, whose life has been marked by death, leaving him to professionally specialise in the field of suicide. His patient, Elizabeth Cruikshank, has attempted suicide - not an attention seeking effort but a genuine one, foiled only by the timely arrival of a neighbour. This seems an unlikely pairing for Sally Vickers' latest effort (after the beautiful "Miss Garnet's Angel" and the less effective "Mr Golighlty's Holiday"), but it has worked magnificently, giving us a spare, thoughtfully crafted and many layered novel which says as much about modern psychiatric medicine as it does about our ability to heal each other through remembrance and simple human interaction. It is also, at many levels, a finely woven and poignant love story.



Interwoven in this story is an appreciation of Caravaggio's works (which makes you want to look at them, be warned), his ability to record the spectrum of human emotions in vivid paint, and how both patient and doctor have been touched by his masterpieces in ways that they could not foresee would have such impacts on their respective psyches.



The writing is sharp and clean, and each of the characters are finely drawn and believable. The small grouping of attendant characters - other patients, staff, family and friends are also interesting and believable, adding richness to this novel by allowing us to see that there are other factors which impact upon who our chief characters are, and how they are formed by their world.



Sally Vickers is a talented novelist whose passion for her topic and their humanity shines through every page of this fine book.

This book is a very thoughtful yet sobering look at the difficulty of establishing a relationship where the two parties actually fit. The author explores this through the voices of psychoanalyst David McBride and patient Elizabeth Cruikshank, who had attempted suicide when her chance at realizing true love with artist and teacher Thomas Carrington is abruptly ended.

The story is initiated in David's office as he and Liz, after a very halting start, attempt to understand Liz' history with Thomas. Liz in a harsh judgment of herself regards her actions as "faithless," altogether different than unfaithful.

Along this journey of discovery, the author's assessment of the possibilities for love is made rather clear. For example,

"The reasons for choice of partner are obscure and what passes for love is generally a decided mixed bag: lust, anxiety, lack of self-worth, sadism, masochism, cowardice, fear, recklessness, self-glory, simple brutality, the need to control, the urge to be looked after; most dangerous of all, the desire to save. ... Seldom, very seldom, do two people unite through sheer reciprocal joy in the other's being."

Even then, there is "the stark fact that nothing is ever settled between two human souls, for nothing is or can be settled until we are finally done and gone."

Though there is a certain amount of desperation in their lives and some developments are rather somber, both David and Elizabeth come to some realizations and understandings that permit them to move on with their lives with some contentment gained.

The book is not without its ambiguities and unevenness, especially in regards to the one tragic event in David's life, namely the death of his six-year-old brother when he was himself only five. The conversations are long but there is enough plot to keep the book moving. The insights gained from the book outweigh the general melancholy tone.

Caravaggio painted two versions of the risen Christ at supper in Emmaus with two disciples after he had walked and talked with them unrecognized along the road. In one, Caravaggio puts a small feast before them and portrays Jesus with a youthful face. The other picture places a sparer repast on the table and Jesus looks as though the sufferings of his life had stamped his post-crucifixion countenance too. But both paintings depict Jesus fulfilling his promise that "where two or three gather in my name, there will I be also." As Luke, chapter 24 informs, when the disciples recognize their master, he "vanishes," and the two remind each other that their hearts were "burning inside us as he talked to us on the road."

In THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU, Dr. David McBride, a psychiatrist and analyst, in time views both paintings, one habitually exhibited in his native England and the other in Italy. He discovers in them a message...one he even conveys to a skeptical assemblage of his professional peers in place of the case studies he had prepared. His fellow psychiatrists appear puzzled rather than enlightened, but for the reader, McBride's remarks crystallize the ways art and the experiences of the characters have integrated....

For the doctor we meet initially is a man still mourning the loss of his older brother to a lorry accident when they were children. And he's also a man who carries on with a marriage that superficially floats along, but really is sinking. He's damaged and unable to connect, and his preoccupation with survivor's guilt feeds his desire to understand the minds of those who are inclined to commit suicide.

At a small psychiatric hospital called St. Christopher's, one of those who has attempted to end it all is Mrs. Elizabeth Cruikshank. At first she is a hard nut to crack, sitting silently through her sessions with McBride. But one afternoon, they stumble on a mutual appreciation for Caravaggio, and this leads to a marathon seven-hour session in which the previously recalcitrant patient reveals herself. But she does not do this as an entirely one-sided effort. McBride also contributes, showing the tender parts of himself. He isn't discarding his professional ethics by crossing forbidden boundaries; rather, he is shaping an empathetic meeting of the minds that will allow his patient to unburden herself in an environment of shared humanity.

Her hidden story is a love story that she fleshes out with the comedies of life and its own bittersweet ironies and inevitabilities. The questions of what defines "love" swirl around. Must love, to be a successful exchange, be unconditionally accepted when it is unconditionally and fully given? And what responsibility must one shoulder if one fails to wholly embrace love once it is offered? This is perhaps the pivotal consideration that both doctor and patient -- two kindred souls -- face.

In their marathon, Elizabeth and David, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, discuss "all that happened" and in the process they become "[t]wo people with open hearts, and the willingness to speak from them" to "create a reality more powerful and salient than either individual."

Salley Vickers has crafted a beautiful contemplation on the human potentialities for bonding. The novel is both encouragement and admonition that opportunities that arise to share burning hearts ought not be carelessly wasted or cast aside out of fear.

THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU is a poignant read and one to be cherished.

Psychiatrist Dr.David McBride meets a new patient, a would be suicide, Elizabeth Cruickshank who was saved from death by a neighbour. Elizabeth had married on the rebound from her first real love affair, only to find herself trapped in a boring marriage to an extremely dull man. Years later and now the mother of two, she meets her old lover again and travels with him to Rome where he introduces her to the world of art, in particular that of Caravaggio. Despite desperately wanting to be with him, she leaves her lover because of her guilty conscience and regrets it, ever after, when he dies only days later. Treating Elizabeth awakens old feelings in David who had always put to the back of his mind, the fact that his brother died as a child while caring for him. Salley Vickery writes knowledgeably (she is a psychoanalyst) and with great clarity and is one of those authors who can make the reader hear every word of a conversation. I can't swear that I understood every nuance of the psychiatric side of things but enjoyed the read immensely.

David McBride, a psychotherapist, has a patient, Elizabeth Cruikshank who had attempted suicide. The story of Elizabeth triggers long-suppressed thoughts about and bleak insights into problems in his own life. As a result he responds to his patient's story with particular intensity and not with the detachment that therapists are supposed to show. Patients often want sessions to continue beyond the consultation hour, but here David wants it also and one session, for example, lasts for seven hours, well into the night. And although long silences in the early stages of the treatment are convincing, in the late stages I found Elizabeth's account of conversations she had had with her lover Thomas too literary, too artistically crafted: people don't speak like that; and that could also be said of a five page long speech by David to his wife Olivia. Events seem to me rather too telescoped: four separate major events happen to David on one day, and on the following day he moves from deep depression to catharsis. What also put me off somewhat is that the story is told by David in the first person, so that the wise reflections he makes from time to time about psychology and about life, especially in about the first half of the book, have about them a slightly vain tone which, perhaps unjustly, made me a little irritated with the author who is herself a psychotherapist - and in the light of that knowledge I had initially to remind myself from time to time that the psychiatrist in this novel is a man and not a woman.

But all that having been said, there are excellent things in the book. The personality of Elizabeth - so painfully lacking in self-esteem and so torn between duty to an unloved husband, children and mother-in-law on the one hand and passion for her lover Thomas on the other - is very well drawn. She has the intuition that some patients have to know what the therapist is not saying. Thomas is an unusual, magnificently forthright and eloquent creation - clearly not only Elizabeth but also both David and Salley Vickers are strongly attracted by him. Gus Galen, too, David's guru, is a meaty and wise character. There is a touching description of how, in the end Elizabeth and David support each other. (Lesser writers would have inserted a sex scene here.)

As in the author's Miss Garnet's Angel, Italy and Italian art play a considerable part here, though I think she was much better at evoking Venice in that other novel than she is at her somewhat guide-book descriptions of Rome in this one. On the other hand what she sees in Caravaggio in this novel is more profound than what she saw in Guardi in the other one. Part of what Caravaggio means to her, to David and to Elizabeth is the subject, near the end, of the moving lecture David delivers in Rome and then of a further visit to his works in that city. This Part IV of the book is a most satisfying finale and handsomely made up for some of my earlier reservations.

This was a very short but not simple novel that explores infidelity and its effect on its main characters. This is a book that looks at psychiatrist's slow examination of his patient and his own life. The author interweaves the two stories in a unique believable way. The book speaks to interconnectedness and the importance of it in solving complex human issues. Not a shout out loud book but a very subtle whisper of a good book.

Vickers draws upon her training as a Jungian analyst to examine the relationship between compassionate psychiatrist David McBride and his reticent, failed suicide patient Elizabeth Cruikshank. As McBride interacts with her, his colleagues, and other patients, he examines his own life and belief systems. Art becomes the catalyst for earning Elizabeth's trust, and the book becomes a page-turner as she reveals through flashbacks the source of her unhappiness. Vicker's insightful prose explores the challenge and necessity of loving and being loved, while her masterful plot takes readers on a voyage of discovery to the "other side" of the characters' true selves.

Without giving away too many spoilers, as this book has quite a narrow narrative and storyline, so it would be easy to do so, I would just say that if you like a book where the characters truly engage with one another, then this is a must read for you.

The patient and her psychologist, through their sharing of experiences, create a powerful and frighteningly honest reality about life, that left me questioning my own thoughts and actions. Much as it did David McBride, the pschologist in question, who is left to re-evaluate both his personal and professional life, and his ability to make an honest and meaningful difference to the lives of those around him.

The characters are complex, formed with great tenderness and respect, and given a life that is both moving and powerful. The storyline of the psychiatrist trying to help his suicidal patient shifts, page by page, into a shared pain, as their stories unfold together, with each trying to reach some kind of self-understanding, as they confront their failures and regrets with an honesty that can be both moving and painful.

Sometimes I just wanted to shake the pair of them, at other times I wanted to cry for them, or with them, I'm not sure which. The debate about the nature of relationships; love and pain; life and death; self knowledge and lack of self worth, are all skilfully woven into the story, yet presented so directly as to be almost too intimate and too close to home, all making for a totally compelling journey.

It was almost a relief when the couple are finally all talked out and have each, in their own way, come to an understanding and acceptance of their individual circumstances and both make the conscious decision to make the most of every opportunity and move on with their lives, each in a totally new direction.

The story didn't quite end as I had expected however, although it was quite haunting and beautiful, given the ties throughout the story to the art of Caravaggio, particularly his work titled `Supper At Emmaus', which both inspired them to open up to each other, yet eventually appeared destined to keep them apart.

Not being an art crtitic, I nevertheless spent some considerable time in researching the art and life of Caravaggio and confess to becoming mesmerised by many of his religious paintings, although the man himself appeared to be quite a troubled and not particularly likeable character. To my untrained eye, his paintings seem passionate, yet almost cruel, but with an expressive beauty that captured my imagination.

--

This book was an impulse buy from a charity shop and has been languishing in my `To Be Read' pile for some considerable time. I wasn't even sure whether to bother reading it or not, having heard mixed reviews and thoughts about it, but being the kind of person that just can't part with a book until I have read it, just in case I miss something fantastic, I decided to give it a try.

I am certainly glad that I did save this one from being left unread any longer ...

A definite 4 out of 5

An insightful, sad and heart wrenching tale of love, found and lost. The characters come to life on the pages. The conversations are incredibly deep. The artistic study of Caravaggio is both beautiful and informative.

A quiet book for introspection and thought.

This book completely infuriated me. Yes, indeed, Elizabeth was faithless. Who in their right mind would throw away their soul/hearth mate for a boring, rigid, loveless marriage? Who was she married to anyway? Her mother-in-law? That woman had more influence on Elizabeth than her husband did. I couldn't even feel sorry for Elizabeth after her total faithlessness in the face of such a rare gift as she was given. When she left her lover in Rome at her mother-in-law's cryptic request, without even knowing what had happened to cut short her stay I thought from then on that Elizabeth didn't deserve Thomas in any way. Her failed suicide was indeed unfortunate as the rest of her life was a waste as well.

But that was not the part that drove me to fury. The author implies that David and Elizabeth could have formed a meaningful connection but they just throw that away too. Twenty years later he still wakes missing her and you can only ask WHY? Nothing whatsoever prevented them from continuing to build a relationship. He says once you have experienced a certain closeness the other kind leaves you wanting. But does he reach out and grab that opportunity for this closeness offered to him on a platter and nourish it to fullness? No. He whiles away his years with some sculptor he finds "uncomplicated but not unsatisfying."

The final nail in the coffin of this disappointing book? The last words from a letter Elizabeth writes to him:

"Were our hearts not burning within us?" And they both just p*ssed it away. I continued to read this book because the author dangled the hope of depth and maybe even a few enlightening insights. In the end the book was simply false through and through as I don't believe anyone would waste opportunities as these two both did. Repeatedly.

It takes a very aggressive form of cynicism to write a book like this.