Sympathy

When a car accident claims the lives of her husband and son, Kerry Taylor, a former ballet dancer, slips into a catatonic state. Her family’s last option is the Rosewood Clinic, where Dr. Michael Myatt has launched a controversial new therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder victims in the wake of 9/11. Framed around the seven distinct phases of Myatt’s radical “sympathy-based” therapy, in which the doctor tries to take on the actual physical feelings of the patient, the book explores the permeable boundaries between self and others. A colorful supporting cast of five lost souls adds poignancy and earthy humor to the story of Kerry’s gradual return to consciousness and long-suppressed grief. This powerful first novel examines the relationship between mind, body, and spirit, and sets Kerry’s recovery against a larger backdrop: the healing of damaged minds during a time of political and social upheaval.

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Rendered catatonic in her grief over losing her husband and son in a car accident, former ballet dancer Kerry Taylor undergoes a controversial therapy approach that has been devised by her doctor for post-traumatic stress disorder victims of the September 11 attacks. Original.

The newest arrival at the Rosewood Clinic, a psychiatric treatment center in suburban DC, is Kerry Taylor, a former ballet dancer and the sole survivor of a car crash in which her husband and young son were killed. In a catatonic state and diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, Kerry has not responded to conventional treatment. In desperation, her mother turns to Dr. Michael Myatt, whose method is to take patients back to a primal state in order to release their current demons. While Kerry and her fellow patients, an assortment of quirky characters all suffering from some form of shock or abuse, are put through a series of breathing, floating, aural, visual, and word association exercises, Myatt struggles with his personal history and the psychiatric establishment to gain acceptance for his novel treatment approach in a world full of dangers like anthrax and the Beltway sniper. Boasting a swiftly paced plot, dialog with heart and humor, and sympathetic characters whose fate the reader will care about, this fine first effort by talented writer Crane belongs in larger public libraries.--Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Kingston, Ont.

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