Set in contemporary Montreal, Ondine's Curse follows the attempts of Robert Strasser, a television documentary producer, to film the life of Dr. Werther Acheson, the German director of a controversial psychiatric institute. In the course of his journey through Acheson's murky past, Strasser meets Ondine, one of the institute's patients, and soon finds himself increasingly fascinated by the haunted young woman. It is Ondine who is at the heart of this powerful probe of the human psyche. A historian, she is trying to complete her own research into the death of Shawnadithit, a Beothuk Indian woman who was the last survivor of a Newfoundland tribe that was exterminated by settlers in the 1820s. But Ondine's ability to cope in the modern world is crippled by a repressed memory of violence as a witness to the Montreal Massacre in 1989 when fourteen women were slain in Canada's most shocking mass murder. Moody and macabre, Steven Manners's expressionist novel is a literary tour de force that lurches through the dementia of the twentieth century, seeking meaning behind the massacres and mayhem.
Ondine's Curse
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About the Author
Steven Manners is the author of Mytho/Genies, a collection of stories. his short fiction has appeared in Descant, The Antigonish Review, Blood & Aphorisms, sub-TERRAIN, and The Canadian Writer's Journal. As a feature-film screenwriter, Manners was awarded a Peter Stark Screenwriting Award at the 1998 Santa Barbara Film Festival. He has also edited or written a number of medical books and is a frequent contributor to medical journals. Currently he lives in Montreal, Quebec.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By "rickhomer"
Format:Paperback
This book blew me away - mysterious, perverse, awesome mood piece. As dark as Kafka, echoes of Pynchon (the earlier stuff). It's about a "Biography"-style TV reporter, Robert Strasser, who has to interview a world-famous psychiatrist, Dr. Werther Acheson, who's this weirdly machiavellian character. His history is the history of 20th century psychiatry with all its perverse twists: crackpot cures, drugs (who knew Ecstasy was developed by a drug company at the turn of the century?).
Along the way Strasser meets Ondine, a patient at the psych institute, and tries to dig information out of her. He falls in love but Ondine's really damaged with posttraumatic flashbacks. She's this id character, trying to understand history (she's a historian) emotionally rather than intellectually.
I've got to mention Dr. Kotzwara, one of the people Strasser interviews. This guy's a shrink studying paraphiliacs (sex disorders) - totally out there doing these wild experiments.
Sex, drugs and psychiatry - very intense. It'll warp your mind. Like a really smart William S. Burroughs on 21st century drugs. Unforgettable!
Along the way Strasser meets Ondine, a patient at the psych institute, and tries to dig information out of her. He falls in love but Ondine's really damaged with posttraumatic flashbacks. She's this id character, trying to understand history (she's a historian) emotionally rather than intellectually.
I've got to mention Dr. Kotzwara, one of the people Strasser interviews. This guy's a shrink studying paraphiliacs (sex disorders) - totally out there doing these wild experiments.
Sex, drugs and psychiatry - very intense. It'll warp your mind. Like a really smart William S. Burroughs on 21st century drugs. Unforgettable!
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Excellent, brilliant writer. This century's most psychologically intuitive author. You squirm when you read his stories; so real you feel like you're in the mind of his subjects' most intimate, and often dangerously exciting, thoughts. The reviews were excellent!
His new book of short stories 'Wound Ballistics' also blew me away with his insight. I couldn't put either book down and a week later found myself reading both books again! They got even better.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Evil Pharmaceutical Companies
Jan 29 2003
By Richard Hobbs
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Ondine's Curse is a good first novel. This book will be of particular interest to those who are interested in the relationship between large drug companies and their researchers. Set in Montreal shortly after the Marc Lepine attacks the heroine of the story begins a travel through her own psyche in an attempt to resolve her traumatic experience. She is aided on her journey by some psychiatrists with questionable ethics. The novel is disjointed in parts but offers excellent character development and offers a thoroughly interesting take on some well known historical facts.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ondine's Curse
Dec 26 2002
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Excellent, brilliant writer. This century's most psychologically intuitive author. You squirm when you read his stories; so real you feel like you're in the mind of his subjects' most intimate, and often dangerously exciting, thoughts. The reviews were excellent!
His new book of short stories 'Wound Ballistics' also blew me away with his insight. I couldn't put either book down and a week later found myself reading both books again! They got even better.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book of the year!
Oct 9 2001
By "rickhomer"
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book blew me away - mysterious, perverse, awesome mood piece. As dark as Kafka, echoes of Pynchon (the earlier stuff). It's about a "Biography"-style TV reporter, Robert Strasser, who has to interview a world-famous psychiatrist, Dr. Werther Acheson, who's this weirdly machiavellian character. His history is the history of 20th century psychiatry with all its perverse twists: crackpot cures, drugs (who knew Ecstasy was developed by a drug company at the turn of the century?).
Along the way Strasser meets Ondine, a patient at the psych institute, and tries to dig information out of her. He falls in love but Ondine's really damaged with posttraumatic flashbacks. She's this id character, trying to understand history (she's a historian) emotionally rather than intellectually.
I've got to mention Dr. Kotzwara, one of the people Strasser interviews. This guy's a shrink studying paraphiliacs (sex disorders) - totally out there doing these wild experiments.
Sex, drugs and psychiatry - very intense. It'll warp your mind. Like a really smart William S. Burroughs on 21st century drugs. Unforgettable!
Along the way Strasser meets Ondine, a patient at the psych institute, and tries to dig information out of her. He falls in love but Ondine's really damaged with posttraumatic flashbacks. She's this id character, trying to understand history (she's a historian) emotionally rather than intellectually.
I've got to mention Dr. Kotzwara, one of the people Strasser interviews. This guy's a shrink studying paraphiliacs (sex disorders) - totally out there doing these wild experiments.
Sex, drugs and psychiatry - very intense. It'll warp your mind. Like a really smart William S. Burroughs on 21st century drugs. Unforgettable!
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
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