The Death Instinct: A Novel [Paperback]

Although it makes use of a little-known real-life incident of terrorism on American soil - an explosion on Wall Street on Sept 16th 1920 - and follows through on all the political implications with meticulous consideration for the historical period, at heart Jed Rubenfeld's follow-up to The Interpretation of Murder is a huge, engaging, ripping yarn. It's well-written, carefully researched and intelligently put across, but the emphasis is definitely on the adventure and the romance of the period.

And it just happens to be a highly interesting period in American history. Post-First World War, where many Americans have lost their lives in the trenches during the final stages of the Great War, with Prohibition in force and the Depression on the horizon, to say nothing of the conditions being set for the next World War, The Death Instinct convincingly depicts the state of the world of anarchists and nascent terrorism being used as an effective and sometimes legitimate means of causing serious political upheaval.

Technology too has advanced, as has the understanding of human psychology, and both are integrated into the fabric of the times, particularly in consideration of notions of extreme violence, death and killing, all of which have new implications in the post-war generation, as well as being having implications (and an obvious parallel in 9/11) for the present day and the current place of America in the new world order. All of this is superbly brought into the story, without unnecessary lecturing or over-emphasis, blending wonderfully and imaginatively into the events surrounding the bombing of Wall Street.

And what a cracking adventure that turns out to be, again involving NYPD detective James Littleman, with war veteran Stratham Younger and a French woman he has met on the front, Collette Rousseau - a woman with her own mysterious motivations that take her and her silent younger brother Luc on a relentless journey from America to the Vienna of Sigmund Freud. The novel takes its historical setting seriously, but crucially, it doesn't take itself seriously, allowing all kinds of thrilling adventures and heroics in a fast-moving tale involving the FBI, European anarchists and many other secret agencies and interested parties. There's never a dull moment in The Death Instinct, but there's also plenty here to consider from a historical as well as a modern perspective.

In Jed Rubenfeld's sexy, moody, Hitchcockian-cum-Freudian-cum-Jungian literary novel, The Interpretation of Murder, Dr. Stratham Younger narrates a story within the framework of a fictional journal, focusing on his experiences with Drs. Jung and Freud on their revolutionary visit to the United States in 1909. Rubenfeld braided historical fact and fiction in this Manhattan corkscrew murder mystery, centering on Freud's pioneering "talking therapy" and penning some biting dialogue between the three psychoanalysts. Younger's skepticism and attraction to Freud's theories enhanced the mesmerizing story of his attempt to cure a damaged, neurotic, and mute woman. The novel was peopled with a sprawling cast of doctors and louche politicians, drawing the reader into a lush, dissecting mixture of cerebral scrutiny and emotional desire.

Rubenfeld's second and very ambitious novel also weaves fact and fiction, with extensive scope, while adopting some of the motifs and themes from his debut work. This time the author is tacitly paralleling events in the novel to the economic depression of contemporary times, as well as the 9/11 tragedies.

The year is now 1920, the eve of the roaring twenties, women's suffrage, and the transition from Wilson to Harding. Nobel Prize winner (twice) Madame Curie is about to tour the United States to raise funds for her research on radium. Radium is already being used in industry to paint luminous watch dials, poisoning the working women at a factory in Manhattan. Many factory workers are out of work altogether. Prohibition starts and gives rise to speakeasies, Babe Ruth has been traded to the Yankees (1919), and Freud has advanced his theory of human drives in his essay, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," which expounds on the theory of the death instinct. The Mexican Revolution is officially over, but tensions are not.

The Treaty of Versailles had severed many of Germany's provinces from its territories (1919). J.P. Morgan & Company is the titanic leader of finance. Moreover, a billion dollars in gold is being transferred from the old Sub-Treasury to the adjacent Assay Office via overhead bridge. The author incorporates all these historical events, (and more) into a multi-faceted, sometimes brilliant, not quite numinous, but intriguing and educating story.

Stratham Younger, now a veteran of the Great War and an ex-psychiatrist and ex-husband, is standing on Wall Street when a bomb explodes, killing and maiming many civilians. It was at that time the biggest terrorist attack ever executed on American soil. Unsolved to this day, there is insubstantial conjecture that Italian anarchists were behind it. This leaves it wide open for Rubenfeld to create a capital, confabulated truth from historical, anecdotal, documented, and apocryphal background and a florid imagination. He does it superbly, with an expansive cast that includes authentic politicians and businessmen, the FBI and Treasury kingpins, as well as fictional characters. It also alludes, by comparison, that a proper criminal investigation was never conducted for 9/11.

(Fictional) Detective Littlemore, of the New York Police Department and Younger's best friend (present in Rubenfeld's first novel), comes on board to help him try to solve the case. Accompanying Younger during the explosion are Littlemore, and an enigmatic and beautiful French scientist and student of Madame Curie, Colette Rousseau. Her relationship with Younger has a fiery chemistry with lots of obstacles. And, using a motif from his former novel, we are introduced to another mute, this time Colette's young brother, Luc.

Rubenfeld straddles the investigation into the Wall Street attack with the story of Younger's relationship with Colette and Luc via a well-paced balancing act. Freud's presence will be included to help unravel the origin of Luc's muteness and try to cure it. Someone(s) is after Colette, it seems, and she is very close to not escaping dangerous villains. She is on a serious mission to explore the medical benefits of radium and raise money for Madame Curie's research, as well as find employment as a scientist again. Prior to WW1, she was at the Sorbonne. And--love story? We have a fetching love story, too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, but with a bit of a caveat. Rubenfeld pulls off this byzantine plot handily, but with some sacrifice of character and some crowd-pleasing tidiness where I would have liked it messy. (I liked the messier first novel.) Younger, who is no longer the narrator in this omniscient perspective, comes across as a White Knight and brooding, taciturn hottie. That was quite a switch from his younger and more self-effacing and uncertain days. The war and maturation may have had an effect, certainly, but he was too predictable here.

Jimmy Littlemore was also a caped crusader of sorts, a committed family man with flawless scruples. No equivocations to his character, as he always took the moral high ground. The villains and white hats were often too clearly delineated, except where Rubenfeld decided to bait and switch. There were more obvious contrivances at work in this novel, which lent a more mainstream adjustment. And there were some hokey types used to drive the narrative action and plot tension.

The language occasionally felt too modern and anachronistic, speaking too closely in the verse of today. The author generally pulled back before going too far with it, but it did peal at times. For example,

"Germany hates us because we beat them. England and France hate us because we saved them. Russia hates us because we're capitalist. The rest of the world hates us because we're imperialist."

Finally, the ambiguities were conspicuously ambiguous and not sufficiently nettling or beguiling. Rubenfeld did most of the work for us, although it was impressive work. It was a dazzling ride through most of the story--a little boggy in the middle, but fine and tight at the end, and worth the investment. I'd like to see Rubenfled aim his concept just a little bit smaller the next time, furthering story lines about psychiatry--his forte--and give us some main characters with a bit more incertitude and mystique.

A Brooklyn Bridge spanning the Hudson!! serves as a symbol of the carelessness of this writing. Nothing is worse than a mystery that is improbable at best and absurd at worst. Our hero dives through a closed glass window, nary a bruise, ending up only "spitting paint and wood chips" (played by Bruce Willis?) He follows a radioactive trail through Manhattan using a primitive Geiger counter. Terrible physics; terrible writing.
After some rave reviews, this book is a huge disappointment indeed. I want my money back! N. Blatz