Other Side Of You [Hardcover]

Dr David McBride is a psychiatrist, whose life has been marked by death, leaving him to professionally specialise in the field of suicide. His patient, Elizabeth Cruikshank, has attempted suicide - not an attention seeking effort but a genuine one, foiled only by the timely arrival of a neighbour. This seems an unlikely pairing for Sally Vickers' latest effort (after the beautiful "Miss Garnet's Angel" and the less effective "Mr Golighlty's Holiday"), but it has worked magnificently, giving us a spare, thoughtfully crafted and many layered novel which says as much about modern psychiatric medicine as it does about our ability to heal each other through remembrance and simple human interaction. It is also, at many levels, a finely woven and poignant love story.

Interwoven in this story is an appreciation of Caravaggio's works (which makes you want to look at them, be warned), his ability to record the spectrum of human emotions in vivid paint, and how both patient and doctor have been touched by his masterpieces in ways that they could not foresee would have such impacts on their respective psyches.

The writing is sharp and clean, and each of the characters are finely drawn and believable. The small grouping of attendant characters - other patients, staff, family and friends are also interesting and believable, adding richness to this novel by allowing us to see that there are other factors which impact upon who our chief characters are, and how they are formed by their world.

Sally Vickers is a talented novelist whose passion for her topic and their humanity shines through every page of this fine book.

Caravaggio painted two versions of the risen Christ at supper in Emmaus with two disciples after he had walked and talked with them unrecognized along the road. In one, Caravaggio puts a small feast before them and portrays Jesus with a youthful face. The other picture places a sparer repast on the table and Jesus looks as though the sufferings of his life had stamped his post-crucifixion countenance too. But both paintings depict Jesus fulfilling his promise that "where two or three gather in my name, there will I be also." As Luke, chapter 24 informs, when the disciples recognize their master, he "vanishes," and the two remind each other that their hearts were "burning inside us as he talked to us on the road."

In THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU, Dr. David McBride, a psychiatrist and analyst, in time views both paintings, one habitually exhibited in his native England and the other in Italy. He discovers in them a message...one he even conveys to a skeptical assemblage of his professional peers in place of the case studies he had prepared. His fellow psychiatrists appear puzzled rather than enlightened, but for the reader, McBride's remarks crystallize the ways art and the experiences of the characters have integrated....

For the doctor we meet initially is a man still mourning the loss of his older brother to a lorry accident when they were children. And he's also a man who carries on with a marriage that superficially floats along, but really is sinking. He's damaged and unable to connect, and his preoccupation with survivor's guilt feeds his desire to understand the minds of those who are inclined to commit suicide.

At a small psychiatric hospital called St. Christopher's, one of those who has attempted to end it all is Mrs. Elizabeth Cruikshank. At first she is a hard nut to crack, sitting silently through her sessions with McBride. But one afternoon, they stumble on a mutual appreciation for Caravaggio, and this leads to a marathon seven-hour session in which the previously recalcitrant patient reveals herself. But she does not do this as an entirely one-sided effort. McBride also contributes, showing the tender parts of himself. He isn't discarding his professional ethics by crossing forbidden boundaries; rather, he is shaping an empathetic meeting of the minds that will allow his patient to unburden herself in an environment of shared humanity.

Her hidden story is a love story that she fleshes out with the comedies of life and its own bittersweet ironies and inevitabilities. The questions of what defines "love" swirl around. Must love, to be a successful exchange, be unconditionally accepted when it is unconditionally and fully given? And what responsibility must one shoulder if one fails to wholly embrace love once it is offered? This is perhaps the pivotal consideration that both doctor and patient -- two kindred souls -- face.

In their marathon, Elizabeth and David, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, discuss "all that happened" and in the process they become "[t]wo people with open hearts, and the willingness to speak from them" to "create a reality more powerful and salient than either individual."

Salley Vickers has crafted a beautiful contemplation on the human potentialities for bonding. The novel is both encouragement and admonition that opportunities that arise to share burning hearts ought not be carelessly wasted or cast aside out of fear.

THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU is a poignant read and one to be cherished.

This book is a very thoughtful yet sobering look at the difficulty of establishing a relationship where the two parties actually fit. The author explores this through the voices of psychoanalyst David McBride and patient Elizabeth Cruikshank, who had attempted suicide when her chance at realizing true love with artist and teacher Thomas Carrington is abruptly ended.

The story is initiated in David's office as he and Liz, after a very halting start, attempt to understand Liz' history with Thomas. Liz in a harsh judgment of herself regards her actions as "faithless," altogether different than unfaithful.

Along this journey of discovery, the author's assessment of the possibilities for love is made rather clear. For example,

"The reasons for choice of partner are obscure and what passes for love is generally a decided mixed bag: lust, anxiety, lack of self-worth, sadism, masochism, cowardice, fear, recklessness, self-glory, simple brutality, the need to control, the urge to be looked after; most dangerous of all, the desire to save. ... Seldom, very seldom, do two people unite through sheer reciprocal joy in the other's being."

Even then, there is "the stark fact that nothing is ever settled between two human souls, for nothing is or can be settled until we are finally done and gone."

Though there is a certain amount of desperation in their lives and some developments are rather somber, both David and Elizabeth come to some realizations and understandings that permit them to move on with their lives with some contentment gained.

The book is not without its ambiguities and unevenness, especially in regards to the one tragic event in David's life, namely the death of his six-year-old brother when he was himself only five. The conversations are long but there is enough plot to keep the book moving. The insights gained from the book outweigh the general melancholy tone.