By blood

I gave this book 3 Jewish stars, but at times it was worth 4 or even 5. And at other times 2. When it ended, my first impulse was to continue the story on my own. Dr. Schussler contacts the building management. Or the patient doesn't believe that Dr. Schussler wasn't the one to find her mother for her. After all, how plausible is the story of some guy in the next office doing it? It's plausible to me. I could imagine doing it. Does that make me as crazy as the narrator? Why does he have to be crazy anyway?

As a plot device. So he can explore gay San Francisco for no reason. So he would eaves drop without guilt? And why was he thrown out of the university? He had boundary problems of some sort which also explains his continued listening and interfering. Perhaps I have them as well. Maybe all of us who read novels do. I'd never go to Dr. Schussler for treatment, though and recommend that the narrator avoid her as well. I didn't experience her as caring about the patient. He pseudo-psychoanalysese which she speaks to her supervisor doesn't match how she is pursuing the case. That's not how she really thinks about the treatment. If she's really that formal in her case formulation she would refer the patient elsewhere.

The underlying philosophical issue is: what do owe to our genetic progenitors? Are we trapped "by blood" to be certain ways? Or trapped to believe we are? Do Jews give birth to Jews and Nazis to Nazis? What then of the children of both?

The psychoanalytic (and we can assume Dr. Schussler's) point of view would privilege upbringing over genetics. The Dr. was both genetically and experientially a child of National Socialism but I see no evidence that either did much damage. She could have gone into "the Jewish science" as rebellion against her father. But research (much easier to do with the internet) shows that there was psychoanalysis in the 3rd Reich. Field Marshal Hermann Goring's cousin took over the Berlin psychoanalytic institute and may have helped Freud leave the country. So blood relatives aren't all alike.

The author Ellen Ullman was adopted so maybe the issue of whether your genetics is your destiny is more of her personal issue. She was a software engineer because her adoptive father was a technical person. So she seemed to indicate in her other book, if I recall correctly. Her being a writer didn't seem to need explaining. My father was a painter. I'm not even close. He hated his parents and they thought his being an artist was insane. Rebellion? That's not my impression.

This review lacks structure. I don't know where I'm heading with it. In my opinion, most of the structure in this novel was imposed from without yet the story that broke through this fake organization, especially that of Maria G., was totally captivating. I started looking on line for the actual historical context, so real did it feel. And yet the ending was so abrupt, it had to be intentionally so. But I can find no reason for it. If a sequel were to be written, I'd run out and get it. But I don't expect one. Maybe what I need to do is end this review abruptly.