“After so devastating a disappointment it would make sense to turn to a Neil”I read one of Vickers’ previous novels in my pre-blogging days, Miss Garnet’s Angel, and remember that it was mostly about a painting of Tobit or Tobias or Toblerone or some such personage. I did remember enjoying it though. And thus I seemed to be stepping into very familiar territory with The Other Side of You, which has a simple enough narrative structure – a few days in the life of psychologist and analyst Davey McBride, in which he treats some patients and interacts with colleagues and tries to figure out why his wife is being a bit strange.One patient proves particularly challenging, a suicide outside the normal mood of desperation and cries for help; rather a woman who had no wish to continue living. Our protagonist feels a deep affinity with Mrs Cruikshank, but she takes a frustratingly long time to open up to him. What she does yield is a passion for Caravaggio, one shared by the doctor’s mentor. And this is where Vickers shines – her narrative is a pleasant enough construct for an emotional response to a series of Caravaggio’s artworks; Dr McBride returns to the National Gallery at one point and falls in love with Caravaggio’s The Last Supper.The novel is religious without being proselytising – Vickers engrosses us in the culture of faith, not the practice. McBride makes numerous references to the men on the road to Emmaus, a story I’ve never understood well (what is its point? That Jesus chose to reveal Himself resurrected away from the crowd? That He wanted to test their loyalty first?) and delves into the tragedy of the men who have just lost their friend and leader, rather than the joy of reunion.*minor spoiler alert* I’m so bored with infidelity. It seems to be in every book. It’s always the slightly controversial story on the side. That’s all I’m going to say here – Vickers takes the adultery storyline quite a lot further than most, with it being the focus of both Elizabeth and Olivia’s stories. Is there no other source of drama in adult interaction? *end spoilers*Clever writing, fascinating characters and a bridge into the art world. I want to take the book with me back to all those Roman churches The Book Accumulator dragged me around when I was 14.
David is a psychiatrist working in two psychiatric hospitals and with a small private practice. In the course of his work he meets Elizabeth Cruikshank, a failed suicide, whose silence he eventually breaks through unconventional means. Standard practice is to keep one's self out of the therapy, but when David had to miss an appointment with her and he attempted to draw her out by apologising for letting her down, he had a moment of clarity and his subsequent words to her hit the mark. She finally began talking, and she told David the story of her love affair, her failure to be courageous, and her guilt at her lover's death. Throughout Elizabeth's telling of her story, David's own story is also told to the reader - both his own loss of his brother Jonny when they were 5 and 6 years old, and what unfolds in the present.Elizabeth and David are both quiet characters - people who don't normally take risks and who keep themselves to themselves, but they are challenged and enlivened by two flamboyant men - Thomas, Elizabeth's lover, and Gus, David's close friend and colleague. A number of other characters, especially Elizabeth's husband and mother-in-law, and David's wife, are vital to the plot, and a few peripherals round it out. Also vital to the plot is the artist Caravaggio, or rather, his two Emmaeus paintings especially. We are also told parts of his life and have some other works described to us, as well as journeying round Rome on a couple of occasions. This is well balanced, however, and the reader doesn't feel that the author wants to impress with her research. Even the sub-plots, while not being intrusive, were a skillful way of deepening knowledge of the key characters.This is the first Salley Vickers I have read, and I will certainly read her others. I enjoyed all the characters, the writing style and the way the stories unfold inside each other. The descriptions - of food, of paintings, of people ... - are highly evocative, and the dialogues are so well done I could 'hear' the different voices. It's not a book that is fast-paced, yet I didn't want to put it down, and I will be recommending it to a number of friends.
What do You think about The Other Side Of You (2007)?
I didn't finish this novel (the paperback) because I couldn't even get half way through it. I found it mediocre at best and full of clichés concerning the therapist/patient relationship. Don't believe the blurb on the covers of novels as they are full of praise from critics who are usually in the pay of the publishing houses. The object is to sell the novel at all costs because if they did put any negative comments on the back of the cover or in any review at the launch of the book, it simply would not sell.Just imagine my review on the back of the cover, would it entice you to buy and read it? Have you ever read anything approaching a negative comment on any novel printed by a publishing house? I would say no, because I've never seen one. It is so expensive to print and distribute a traditional novel, that these publishing houses need to build the reputation of their writers and recoup their money. Any negative comments, reviews or articles written by a journalist or reviewer would not be published because they would lose their job.I had to have a rant about this because I know how the publishing world works. I hope that some of the unsuspecting readers will wake up to this and not lose their hard earned cash on believing the blurb on the back of novels and being disappointed. Also, they may feel that their disappointment is not valid when compared to these comments by so called respected journalists and reviewers. But if they knew the reasons why this might be, they may well be angry too.
—M.P. Nicholaou
David McBride is a psychiatrist/ psychoanalyst whose personal life is beginning to unravel as he treats his failed suicide patient Elizabeth Cruikshank. He consults with his guru Gus but clearly as he begins to transgress boundaries he really needed to be in regular supervision and his own therapy. The late-nighter complete with sandwiches ordered in AND whiskey will likely play into every patient/analysand's fantasy about being the most interesting/favoured client of their therapist. Yes it is unbelievable but hey this is fiction.I found the characters to be well developed, McBride, Cruikshank, her lover and other patients were likeable and drew compassion from me. That Vickers has been a therapist is evident in her writing, particularly in her handling of the silences in the room.This wasn't a novel that I couldn't put down thus only 4 stars instead of 5; however I did enjoy it. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading fiction incorporating art and psychotherapy.
—Triecia Gibney
This book left me yearning for a deep, spiritual kind of love. The book tackles the theme of suicide, and I think does a very poignant job of demonstrating how intensity of feelings can make life at times unbearable. In the movie American Beauty, the male character Ricky (Wes Bentley) cries over a film he made of a plastic bag dancing in the wind: "It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in." That is how I felt after I read this book.
—Kari
