By far one of the best books we read in book club. The spin off story from The Great Gatsby was incredible. Oddly enough, I had never read Gatsby until just before we read The Double Bind. The Double Bind was written so well, that I began to think that the events of Gatsby were real. Incredible, incredible book that I recommend everyone read. ( )

This one had me from the beginning. College student, Laurel, who loves to bike in her spare time and for exercise is biking on a back wood road one day when she is come upon by two men in a van who jump out, attempt to drag her off her bike and rape her. Finally other cyclists, hearing her screams, abort the attempt. Laurel is left with a shattered collarbone, a broken finger, her left breast so badly bruised as to take months to heal and so traumatized that she retreats from school, friends, society and returns to her family home on Long Island to recuperate and recover; not to return to school until mid term. The two men are apprehended and sent to prison.
Laurel was raised on Long Island and she and her friends learned to swim, sail, play tennis, etc at the country club which had once been the home of Jay Gatsby and was right across the way from the home of Daisy and Tom Buchanan.
Laurel takes up swimming to replace biking in her life and begins to volunteer at a homeless shelter. After her schooling is completed she goes to work there full time and meets an older gentleman named Bobbie whose most prized possessions are a box of photographs that Laurel deduces he took himself. When Bobbie suddenly passes away the collection of photos is given to Laurel in the hope that she might put together something from them that could raise some money to aid the shelter. Within this collection of photos, among others are snaps of the Gatsby home and pool, the Buchanan home and the Buchanan children. But most puzzling of all is that there are pictures of Laurel biking on that back wood road.
Laurel begins obsessing about these photos. How could this Bobbie have been on that isolated back road at the same time she was and why. Her life begins to focus on Bobbie, his family, and the pictures, even as the people around her struggle to keep her involved in her day to day life.
Laurel's journey through the "photo land" and her search for understanding is the beginning of a novel with twists and turns and at the end leaves you with your mouth open. Bohjalian's skill with the pen is nothing short of a shocking marvel with this novel. His characters are very believable, their manner of reaction and behavior I found to be realistic to the storyline. I don't think this book is for a "day at the beach read". I think it is more of a sit down and get 'er done type of read simply for the fact that I couldn't put it down until my eyes shut. It was interesting, plausible, riveting; everything I like in a novel. It comes highly recommended. ( )

Double Bind--n. A psychological impasse created when contradictory demands are made of an individual, such as a child or an employee, so that no matter which directive is followed, the response will be construed as incorrect.

Laurel Estabrook is nineteen years old when her life is irrevocably altered by a brutal attack. She was riding her bicycle on the roads of Underhill, Vermont when the attack happened, and she has subsequently given up bicycle riding and she avoids any and all mention of Underhill. Not only does she give up bicycling, but she also withdraws from life in many other respects. She occupies herself with “safe” pursuits–her photography and her work at BEDS, a homeless shelter in Burlington. It is at BEDS that Laurel meets the fifty-six-year-old transient Bobbie Crocker.

Bobbie’s claims of past fame were regarded as those of a mentally ill man when he was alive. It is not until his death when he is discovered to possess a photograph collection that supports his claims. BEDS workers (Laurel, in particular) begin to wonder who Bobbie was and where he came from. The collection contains old photographs with famous people–musicians, sculptors, and more–as well as more recent photographs from Underhill. Mysteriously, a few of the photographs show a dirt road and a girl on a bike. Also in the collection are photos of a mansion–the home of Pamela Buchanan Marshfield, daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby fame.

Bohjalian’s complex and enigmatic intertwining of the stories of Laurel, Bobbie, and Pamela renders the ending as a surprise but also as an ending that, in retrospect, makes complete sense. He augments the significance and mystery of his story by playing off the plot of The Great Gatsby such that as Laurel digs into Bobby’s past the secrets of the Buchanans become increasingly central.

If you like psychological thrillers where you have to dig and keep reading to uncover the real story, then Bohjalian’s The Double Bind will be a good pick. The book does skip among characters and perspectives and time frames, so it can be confusing. In the end, you may still not know what constitutes the real story, but through turning the pages of Laurel’s story you may have an increased insight into the dire straits of the homeless, the vulnerability of the mental ill, and the long lasting scars from past trauma. ( )

I don't want to say too much in this review for fear of spoiling it for future readers.
I will say it is a psychological thriller...something I did not know before reading the book - why? I don't know. It was touted on the cover as one...
To be completely truthful, I've been wanting to read this one since it came out a few years ago. I loved Bohjalian's Midwives so much I just had to read another of his. I read The Great Gatsby first so that I could pick this one up in good conscience. (Much of this novel is based on the classic by Fitzgerald.)
I will say: It was clever. It got most compelling in its last two chapters, when the great twist was being unveiled. Part of me wanted to read it again with the knowledge of the twist in mind; but, frankly, I didn't like it enough to do that. ( )

Chris Bohjalian is a very skilled writer of stories that fit, I think, into the "adventure" genre. Actually, "telemovie script" would probably be a better genre description. This book is classic Bohjalian: there's not a whole lot of depth to the characters but they're revealed enough to clearly establish who are the goodies and who are the baddies (with a few characters wearing shades of gray in between) and he is able to manipulate the reader into taking the right side. Don't worry about the believability, the pace of the story is fast enough and there are enough suspenseful sub-plots to keep the reader turning those pages. Further, as always, there's an 'underlying' message which is really up there in neon lights! This is light reading on the whole, with not too much detail of either violence or sex, although both do rate more than a mention. In this book Bohjalian gives a sympathetic but realistic perspective on both homelessness and mental illness, which surely must warrant an extra half-star in any rating.
Bohjalian won't win any Pulitzer prizes (and to be fair, he's not really writing in that genre), but he will probably sell a lot more books than some of my favorites: Elizabeth Strout, Marilynne Robinson, and Carol Shields, put together. ( )