Dr. Freudine Challenged To Explore Haven Kimmel's Underworld In Iodine~
Written: Jul 04 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: mesmerizing writing that's often amusing and weird; the heroine
Cons: it's also pretty confusing; background in dream analysis would help
The Bottom Line: Kimmel's 2001 memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, was #1 in New York Times. 2008's Iodine is considered a darker novel, but still lethally funny at times.
NOTE - Dr. Freudine is a fictitious psychiatrist and my alter-ego who sometimes helps me to review books, movies and music. Last time she cried over a musical inspired by CD Peter Allen At His Best. *************** While waiting for the phenomenal actor who played Peter Allen, Irish and I drift over to one of Jan's comfortable couches and notice three piles of DVDs on the long coffee table. They're surprisingly all dog movies and I gaze at Irish. "Think she wants to get a dog, huh?"
He chuckles, eyeing the piles with interest. "Not just for kids, it seems..."
"Excuse me, Dr. Freudine?" a woman interrupts and I look up to discover Defiance smiling at me. "Could I please speak to you for a few minutes...as one psychiatrist to another?"
"Oh, sure," I mumble and rise from the couch. It'll be a miracle if she actually wants advice, I muse as I follow her to that quiet lounge I found earlier.
"Well, I had a couple of college women come into my office, pretty rich upbringing you could tell, and they asked if I'd ever read Haven Kimmel. They really want to discuss her bestselling memoirs, the time-shifting novels about wounded women, even her interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Well, I told them I've only read A Girl Called Zippy or whatever, but I'd ask you about it. They love your name."
I raise my eyebrows and hesitate. My memory of reading Kimmel's 2008 novel, Iodine, my last week in grad school is one I'll never forget, but wish I might. How could any professor imagine that one reading of such a complex book could possibly suffice? It was so frustrating to try to cover all the aspects of the unraveling of the brilliant heroine's mind, which called for a solid understanding of not only Freud and Jung, but Dr. James Hillman who wrote many books like The Dream and the Underworld. Indeed, Kimmel acknowledges how much his books inspired Iodine: A Novel.
"These women...do they have a background in archetypal literature and Greek mythology?" I stall, frowning at the challenge of exploring Kimmel like she should be, but also becoming intrigued.
Defiance laughs. "If they didn't, would they be so interested in her? It sounds like Kimmel has a fresh approach to religion, as well..."
"She was a seminary student for a while," I interject, nodding. "Okay, I'll meet them at least and discuss it. I wonder at their stamina for this and if they realize that Kimmel just may change their perception of life, and not simply because the heroine struggles with psychosis, but them being rich and privileged as you infer. Like in her latest novel the story again takes place in rural Indiana and the resourceful heroine is very poor. So what are their names and will they be together?"
Defiance has already written their names on a piece of paper and now hands it to me. Wynona James and McCullough Seaton. One phone number. I suspected that Defiance would be giving me lesbians. Nodding at her I thank her and stash the piece of paper in the front compartment of my party purse.
"Okay then, nice to have done you a favor as one psychiatrist to another...," I begin.
"Wait, Dr. Freudine, please? Then you've read a lot of Kimmel or just her latest novel? I've heard that this Iodine stings like strong medicine. Is that why she called it that?"
Another aspect of the novel my prof never really examined. I size up Defiance's level of interest in my answer and proceed with some caution. "The word iodine appears only a few times in her book. As a former poet she writes quite poetically, you see, beautifully and often with amusing description, and when she mentions the sting of iodine on wounds, I think she means that loving somebody causes a wound that needs to be cleansed or disinfected. In the book the heroine loves a man from her childhood and one in the present who...may remind her of him, but we only understand her past through her dream journals, so it's pretty dark, mysterious."
"I get it, Kimmel's heroine shares her dream journals. So how bizarre are they?"
"Very! They can get rather shocking in a nightmarish way, a little erotic. Kimmel also writes from the heroine's present perspective as a top student in her last year in college going for three minors, as well as with a third-person narrator to help the reader."
Defiance grins, slapping her thigh. "This writer sounds like fun! I think I envy you now because I loved Sylvia Plath. Oh, well, good luck to you. I'll have to read Iodine."
"Do that, doctor. It's not a long book, but you might want to read it twice. It‘s a furious kind of ending, really, after she‘s put on medication, but a haunting one. I can still remember reading it with my jaw dropped and that was a year ago. It makes me wonder, hope, that there will be a sequel.." After all, A Girl Named Zippy had a sequel, She Got Up From The Couch.
First Defiance, then I stand up from our easy chairs and move towards the door. "But iodine is such a good disinfectant, there‘s nothing more needed," she points out and I laugh. Hopefully I haven't made a mistake in taking on this challenge.
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