The Analyst: A Novel

by John Katzenbach

Book Overview

Feliz 53 cumplea os, doctor. Bienvenido al primer d a de su muerte. As comienza el an nimo que recibe Frederick Starks, psicoanalista con una larga experiencia y una vida tranquila. Starks tendr que... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345426274
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.9" x 1.1" x 4.1"

Customer Reviews

el psicoanalista

Excelente libro, no puedes parar de leer. Pase los dias pensando en las pistas y en la tecnica del Dr. Starks para encontrar al autor de la carta. Muy bien escrito, fascinante.

Sorprendente

Pocas veces he leido un libro tan bien escrito que me dejo despierto por noches enteras. No queria dormir, es SORPRENDENTE la manera que entra en la mente de el lector. Este verdaderamente no es un libro para psicologos ni psicoanalistas, no podran practicar su porfesion en paz. Con una simple carta, la introduccion, hace que no quiera parar de leer este libro.

Difficult to put down

Dr. Frederick Starks, a New York City psychoanalyst, lives within a highly structured world. He sees his high-class neurotic patients by day and conforms to a rigid lifestyle at night as he tries to forget about his late wife. His sole respite is the annual month long vacation to Cape Cod in the summer. It is on the eve of such an excursion and on his 53rd birthday that he receives a threatening letter. The letter states, "Welcome to the first day of your death...you ruined my life. And now I fully intend to ruin yours." The demand is for Dr. Starks' suicide or an innocent yet distant family member will be killed. The only way for him to "win" this game is to discover who his tormentor is. This, of course totally changes Frederick Starks' life as his comfortable surroundings crumble away. It is a race against time in which someone must die. John Katzenbach is a very versatile writer who seems to be as comfortable writing a drama about a WWII prisoner of war camp as in HART'S WAR as he is writing this thriller on personal redemption and the process an individual would go to redefine themselves. The actual plot is a quite impressive game of cat and mouse with a gradual changing of those roles. Characters are adeptly portrayed. As we progress further into the plight of the main protagonist, the book becomes increasingly difficult to put down. Mr. Katzenbach is a superb entertainer and one whose books deserve the accolades many have already received.

Top notch suspense!

This was an incredible book that would make an excellent movie!Katzenbach has a skill for creating compelling and convincingcharacters, and a plot that will run you ragged by the end as you try and figure out what is going on! This book is suspenseful to the very end. And even then you will be awe struck! I read it in two days while on vacation, and by the end of the week everyone I was with had read it and was mesmerized by the intensity and brilliance of the story.Dr. Starks, a widower, is a creature of habit and routine. With no close family, and seemingly few friends, he is a psychoanalyst practicing from his home. On his 52nd birthday, he gets a riddle of a note from "Rumplestiltskin" who claims that he will kill Dr. Starks unless Starks kills himself or figures out who he is within 15 days. When Starks learns that this mystery person also made threats to his family, herealizes the reality of the situation.At some point, we learn "R" is seeking revenge for a patient Starks failed to help long ago. Stark's life is instantly turned upside down as the "stalkers" relentlessly play mind games with him and anticipate his every move. He works against the clock to figure out who is threatening him, his patients, his family, and everyone and everything he knows and who the patient was that he supposedly failed. Nothing in his life is sacred anymore -- not his bank accounts, not his homes, his practice, not anything. And the clock is ticking.This is a hard book to review without giving too much away. The twists and turns are enough to keep you turning pages voraciously. It is one of the best books of the psychological thriller genre I have read. Starks is a brilliant character who emerges as a strong, and unpredictable man. Not to mention the other characters in the book who will have you spellbound with their actions and their ability to know everything about Starks. Read this book. You will not be able to put it down and you willwant everyone you know to read it also so that you can talk about it.

Intensely compelling....

"I envy you the experience of reading this book for the first time." That's the note to the reader in the intro pages of "First Blood" (David Morrell) and this is the first time I can restate those words. YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS NOVEL. It is the BEST hunter-hunted story of all time. It is fiendishly clever. If you're tired of the same old formula guy-on-run-with-a-beautiful-babe-at-his-side, then look no further. An extemely compelling and tightly crafted tale, you will also get an unusually rich character study of a man who finds himself in the most extreme nightmare, and so he must finally act with extraordinary measures, or perish. A couple of the reviewers who wanted the story shorter should stick to the shlock shoot-em-ups. This is the rare novel that when you finish it, you'll just sit there saying, "Wow, what a story." Then you'll be bummed that it's over. You've got to read this book -- you will not be let down. Mr. Katzenbach, I tip my hat to you.