Alicia Western, twenty years old, mathematical genius and previously diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, re-admits herself to the Stella Maris psychiatric facility. She is carrying $40,000 in a plastic bag, the remains of her inheritance from her grandmother.
Although there are only two characters in this story, Alicia and her psychiatrist, I found the book as dense, complicated and at times hard to get through as The Passenger. Again, there are pages of discussions on mathematics and mathematicians which were beyond my understanding or, really, my desire to understand.
The Thalidomide Kid and some of the others who invade Alicia’s mind are alluded to and it helps to have read The Passenger for an understanding of who and what they are.
This is a sad story of a beautiful little girl whose overpowering intellect kept her apart from other children. She saw no sense in the normal rules of human conduct and wanted just to love her brother, Bobby. I can only presume that she was correct in everything she discussed with her psychiatrist about mathematics. She showed a sense of humour sometimes, though, as when she quoted a line which she attributed to Joyce: “We were jung and easily freudened”. Isn’t that lovely? I wouldn’t mind quoting it myself, if ever I find myself in a position to do so.
My previous reading experiences of Cormac McCarthy were All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men. Although they both also required concentration and a quiet reading space, Stella Maris and The Passenger are in a different category. I can’t help wondering if, as he approaches the end of his literary career, the writer has decided it’s time to unburden his mind of all the knowledge, mathematical and psychological, he has accumulated in his lifetime and get it out onto paper.
Published by Picador Pan Macmillan
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