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INTERPRETATION OF MURDER by Jed Rubenfeld has been the subject of much pre-publication publicity, and for good reason. It is a tale made up of many elements: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, eroticism, Shakespeare, murder, mystery, insanity, and perhaps its most intriguing character, the city of New York in the early 20th century. It takes a master craftsman to seamlessly integrate all of these factors into a cohesive, coherent and exciting tale that by turns puzzles, titillates, challenges and intrigues. With his debut novel, Rubenfeld handily earns that title.
The event that opens THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER is the arrival of Sigmund Freud in New York; he will give a series of lectures and receive a prestigious award at Clark University. However, the primary narrative focus is on Stratham Younger, an American psychoanalyst representing Clark and a student of Freud's work. A character of almost equal importance is New York Police detective Jimmy Littlemore, who is relatively new to the force. His most important professional asset is his lack of corruptibility.
Younger and Littlemore are slowly but inevitably brought together by events that parallel each other and eventually seem to intersect by virtue of similarity. A woman (a stranger to the city) is found, apparently strangled, in a suite at one of New York's most luxurious hotels. Littlemore is barely able to begin his investigation before her body mysteriously disappears. Younger is recruited by the police department to assist in the investigation of a vicious assault upon Nora Acton, a young woman of wealthy parents, in her bedroom. Acton apparently has been rendered mute and amnesic by the trauma of the assault; Younger is brought in to treat her in hopes she might help the police.
Meanwhile, Freud appears to be the target of an anonymous campaign of innuendo and deception meant to derail the receipt of his award and the presentation of his lectures. The mystery behind these events leaves trails leading to and from areas as diverse as Gramercy Park, the impoverished Chinatown, a hospital for the insane and an engineering marvel known as the Manhattan Bridge. The plotlines dip and swirl around and across each other, with discussions of topics such as the Oedipus complex and Shakespeare's Hamlet woven into their fabrics.
Rubenfeld is a Professor of Law at Yale University and an acknowledged expert on the topic of United States Constitutional Law, a topic barely broached --- if at all --- in the novel. But his grasp of his material is immediate and first-rate. Rubenfeld's description of New York in 1909 is one that only could have been borne out of exhaustive research. Still, he does not permit his narrative to be swallowed up by its backdrop and surroundings. Each of his characters is memorable in his or her own way. There is a particular scene, a dinner party that takes place about midway through the novel, wherein a major character, previously only mentioned, appears in the flesh. Rubenfeld utilizes this introduction to delve more deeply into the personalities of other characters, even as they stand in silent thrall of the new arrival.
THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER is as memorable and haunting a book as has been published this year. If Rubenfeld's Constitutional Law lectures are half as riveting as this work is, Yale should be building a stadium for him to handle the attendance. Very highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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