The Strange Case Of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker

 

This novel is told from the point of view of a psychiatrist who gets a new patient, a woman in her thirties who works in the New York Library.  Jane O. come to him because she says she saw him once before years ago after a friend committed suicide although the doctor doesn't remember her.  This time, she had blacked out and left her young son at daycare overnight.  When she was found, she had no memory of the time she was away.

The doctor believes she had dissociative fugue although he isn't sure.  He discovers something else about Jane.  Her memory is one of those that remembers everything; conversations in full from years ago, the placement of books on a shelf she saw once, what day of the week any date from the past was.  At first he can't believe her ability but he soon realizes that it is real.  But it isn't keeping her from disassociating. She also reports hallucinations such as seeing a man she knows died years ago.   Soon she disappears again, this time for three weeks, taking her son with her.  What can he do to help?

This is an interesting novel.  Both the main characters, Jane and Dr. Byrd, are unreliable narrators, leaving out major plot points or steering the reader in the wrong directions.  The doctor has had some personal setbacks the main one being the sudden death of his wife, leaving him to raise their young daughter alone, but he has also had professional setbacks due to his interest in researching minds that don't fit into the standard diagnoses available.  There is also a forbidden attraction between the two main characters that breaks every rule and makes the doctor doubt his ability to help Jane.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.