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Case Study  By  cover art

Case Study

By: Graeme Macrae Burnet
Narrated by: Serena Manteghi, Graeme Rooney
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Publisher's summary

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman believes that a charismatic psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, has driven her sister to suicide. Intent on confirming her suspicions, she assumes a false identity and presents herself to him as a client, recording her experiences in a series of notebooks. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything. Even her own character.

In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents these notebooks interspersed with his own biographical research into Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling – and often wickedly humorous – meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award

©2021 Graeme Macrae Burnet (P)2021 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

"A novel of mind-bending brilliance... Burnet is a master...and Case Study shows him at the height of his powers." (Hannah Kent)

"Encourages us to look more closely at the inherent instability of fiction itself…genuinely affecting…a very funny book." (The Guardian)

"Brilliant, bamboozling… Burnet captures his characters’ voices so brilliantly that what might have been just an intellectual game feels burstingly alive and engaging." (The Telegraph)

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Somehow it's both tedious and grueling

Not for me. The frame is overly complex-- some biographer (?) is researching some once-famous psychologist, and someone gives him the journals of some woman who'd been the psych's client while pretending to be someone else. Then there are long passages from the autobiography of the psychologist. I found it hard to put together all these parts, and what's there isn't really as "mind-bending" as it's billed. I'm not sure what it's supposed to add up to.

The voices are fun to listen to-- Scottish accents-- and the milieu of the 60s and 70s is done well.

I think maybe this trend towards broken-up narratives that the reader is supposed to mentally assemble in some coherent form isn't for me. Too much work, especially in audio form!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful read! Revolution of the Pscyche

The main character struggles with his existential life. He rises but cannot stay at the height of his notoriety. I recommend this book those who are interested in the ‘70s context within psychiatry and the counter culture happenings at the time.
Very very good.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Skip it

I did not really like any of the characters and it was hard to care about the story.

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  • SB
  • 12-15-22

nope

This is so incredibly boring. I dont understand the point of this book at all. What a colossal waste of time and money.

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1 person found this helpful