Trauma: A Novel

by: Patrick McGrath

Published by: Vintage Contemporaries

Reviewed by Knevits Stephens

Charlie Weir is a psychiatrist in New York. He has dealt with all kinds of people, including those who are suicidal. He has helped others but never sought help for himself. He is dealing with loneliness because he lost his wife Agnes and a daughter through divorce caused by a mistake that he made.

Charlie goes through life helping others and remembering his not-so-good childhood. He lives with nightmares that haunt him as well as the mistakes he has made that have screwed up his life. Charlie meets a girl named Nora and she soon moves in with him. But what Charlie thinks is love turns out not to be. He has Nora around to fill the empty void and help with the loneliness. Nora has Charlie because she has demons in her closet that she needs to conquer that are eating at her–and she needs help.

Charlie tries his best to be a good father to his daughter even though he is no longer with Agnes. He sees her whenever he can and he never speaks badly about Agnes or the step dad. He finds it hard to deal with his patients that go through the suicide stage and some even go as far to try to commit suicide. Just when he thinks he can handle it, he starts to go over the edge and lose it. His memories start to haunt him.

Everything is happening at once and all the answers to his past are starting to unfold before his eyes. He is starting to understand the nightmares and what they mean. Now he has to realize his own symptoms and try to seek help before he loses it and commits suicide himself.

The book started out slow, but after I got into it, I could not put it down, wondering what would happen next. There are a few graphic parts and talk of suicide–so this book may not be for all.

Armchair Interviews says: He has also written Asylum.