Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

 

Alicia Western, twenty, has come to the psychiatric hospital Stella Maris and checked herself in.  She has been there several other times in the past as she doesn't fit into the world.  Alicia has come from Europe where her beloved brother Bobby has crashed his race car and is in a coma.  Pressed to make a decision about whether to withdraw life support, she has fled back to the States and the hospital which she considers a refuge.

The novel is told as a series of sessions between Alicia and her therapist.  Alicia is brilliant, a mathematician who only a few can follow.  But her brilliance also means that few can really engage with her and it leaves her lonely and questioning existence.  She also has hallucinations, the main one being The Kid, a dwarf with flippers for arms.  

This is the second book in the series The Passenger.  The first was Bobby's story and this is Alicia's.  The fate of these two siblings is forever intertwined.  This is not an easy book to read as the philosophy, physics and mathematics are not entry level but these subjects are all interests of McCarthy.  He is considered one of the best of American authors and this duology may be his last work.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.