Books for June: Psychologies selection

Transformation

Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

It is surprising that this quiet and melodic novel about how people gradually lose their hearts, succumbing to conventions, has only now been translated into Russian. After all, it was written in 1938 and is included in the 100 most important novels in the history of British literature. Its main character, the orphaned 16-year-old Portia, comes to London to the family of her half-brother Thomas and his exaggeratedly sophisticated wife Anna. A naive and open girl finds herself in a stuffy atmosphere of repressed feelings and elusive looks.

Portia is looking for sincerity and active participation, but cannot become her own in a house where they speak in an undertone about trifles and are silent about the important. Where behind every spoken word there are a million unspoken ones, and behind polite manners and ironic arrogance, people are longing and weak.

How to live if you do not fit into the generally accepted rules? Is it worth it to become your own in a world that is alien to you? Elizabeth Bowen writes about England she knew well in the 30s, with long tea parties in the living room, Sunday trips to the still-silent cinema, and house parties with dances to the radio.

There is not even a premonition of war in the novel (which Bowen herself certainly had). Young Portia is much more concerned with the movements of her own soul and relationships with others than with the outside world. But that is why she so keenly feels the very one, rendered in the title “death of the heart” of each character, including herself.

Bowen is a master of fine, filigree writing. Observant, fluent in words, she surrounds the dry, deliberately banal dialogues of the characters with lively and figurative pictures of the house, the English garden, spring holidays outside the big noisy villa on the sea coast – this contrast becomes the voice of the author in the novel.

“Bowen’s style was impossible to grasp quickly,” writes Anastasia Zavozova, the translator of the novel, in the preface. “It had to be slowly and carefully put together from several opposites: poetry and restraint, causticity and vulnerability.”

Elizabeth Bowen explores the inner transformation of the characters with the attention of a great artist. And although the realization that Anna is much more in you than Portia is a little scary, after reading the novel it becomes clear: the prospects are disappointing, but for those who retain the ability to perceive the world vividly and respond to what is happening around, the “death of the heart” manages to slow down.

Translation from English by Anastasia Zavozova. Phantom Press, 480 p.

Surprise

Yoav Bloom’s Guide to Action for the Days to Come

It happens that you read a book, and it seems to be written especially for you. Newspaper editor Ben Schwartzman came across just such a one. He picked up Yoav Bloom’s Guide to Action for the Days at the store, and it started talking to him right from the cover.

Despite its intriguing opening, twisted plot, and dynamic pace, Bloom’s story is neither a detective nor a thriller. This is a curious fantasy about experiences. Is it possible to save and convey to another your feelings exactly as you experience them? Say, the emotions of a person who jumped with a parachute, or a father who took a child in his arms for the first time? What happens if you find a way to do it?

The young Israeli writer Yoav Bloom finds his way in a rather bizarre way between Milorad Pavich and Mark Levy, adding magical realism to the exploration of the world of the soul and packaging it into a postmodern novel that leads the reader to serious reflection.

Translation from Hebrew by Alexandra Polyan. Foreigner, 448 p.

friendship

“Caged Bird” Robin Rowe

A graduate of Cornell and Harvard, Robin Rowe did not plan to become a writer, but one day, after going to the hospital, she began working on her memoirs. Memories of childhood turned out to be so difficult – difficult relationships in the family, bullying at school – that Rowe decided to turn them into a literary text.

This story became her therapy. A high school student Adam, a school favorite, a charming guy, is assigned to a closed and gloomy teenager Julian. Adam sees that the boy is hiding something and tries to find out the reason. The experiences of the hero are described extremely honestly, but without excessive pessimism. Row is a teacher, she works with difficult children and knows well how effective psychological help can be provided on time.

Translation from English by Elena Muzykantova. Like Book, 320 p.

Three Reasons to Read Incurable Romantics by Frank Tallis

Learn about the vicissitudes of love. When we are in love, we lose touch with reality a little. And wild passion, jealousy, a broken heart, forbidden love can cause the strongest mental discord in us. British psychiatrist Frank Tallis, professor of clinical psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology at King’s College London, has been studying love addictions and mental pathologies that occur against the backdrop of intense love for many years. The stories of his patients confirm: in its maximum manifestations, love is equivalent to madness.

Take a look at the psychology lab. In each of the 12 chapters, Tallis first tells the case history of one of his patients, and then gives a detailed medical analysis of the case. For example, a female lawyer named Megan is convinced that her dentist Daman Verma is passionately in love with her and only modesty prevents him from confessing. She imagined mystical love and believed in it. Dr. Tallis explains that Megan is suffering from Clerambault Syndrome. He observes the complex transformation of Megan’s feelings, describes and analyzes them, and the reader enthusiastically follows his work.

Understand your feelings. Describing painful disorders, the author also reflects on healthy love relationships, where three components are important: intimacy (or closeness), passion and commitment. How equal is their contribution to the couple’s life? The strength and quality of the union largely depends on this.

Translation from English by Evgenia Egorova. AST, 304 p.