Customer Reviews

The Portrait

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

 

 

An excellent first novel. Great character development on the main character. I learned to empathize with a manic depressive with psychotic tendencies. It's combined with a can't-put-it-down plot. The ending was a little weak, but I look for his next book. My regret is that I'm only the 2nd reviewer. More should be enjoying this one.

Dr. Atkins has a unique and insightful way of getting inside the head of a person with manic depression. That he used a murder mystery as the vehicle makes it all the more accessible. I loved it.

Charles Atkins gives readers a good tour of the psychiatric terrain, how psychiatrists and patients interact, about the "meds," et cetera.

But beyond this, you don't find much of interest here. New York scenery maybe, if you "love New York."

Maybe you identify with artistic genius, knowing that it could also cause what society defines as mental disease. The hero of this book is that way: Give in to the mania because you have a genius for painting fine pictures.

But the most interesting character, to me, was Allen Broadhurst, the sociopath or psychopath who ends up with a big bruise on his skull: If Mr. (whoops, sorry, Doctor) Atkins had included more of this nut case, he might have sold more books. He would have had his own version of Freddy Krueger and the other homicidal maniacs that the public today seems to love so much.

Maybe he has to be credited with holding on to his (psychiatric) integrity, by not giving in to the urge to highlight Allen Broadhurst.

This makes for a slow book. Readable, but slow. Diximus.

This book had me right until the last sixty pages or so. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. The main character is a total original - a manic depressive painter who tries to control his psychotic tendencies with medication, but keep himself a little bit insane for the sake of his art. It was a very accurate portrayal of bipolar disorder. Unfortunately the last third of the book quickly loses credibility and ends in a most unsatisfying way. I can only recommend this book for those who suffer from bipolar and are perhaps looking for a character they can identify with. This book is a lightweight mystery with Hollywood ambitions - nothing more, nothing less.