Monday, August 27, 2007
book report: The Alienist
The Alienist
by Caleb Carr
This is the first Caleb Carr book I've read and I enjoyed it very much! It's a murder mystery set in New York City in the 1890s. The "alienist" of the title refers to the then-budding field of psychology. Scientists were just starting to grasp the fact that a person's childhood experiences have a huge effect on their adult behavior. The group of main characters in the novel is like a proto-CSI unit... they use a variety of techniques such as behavioral analysis, profiling, fingerprinting, and many other concepts that were not yet widely accepted.
As a bonus, Carr is a terrific writer and really made me feel like I was experiencing New York 100 years ago. Even the dialect stuff that he threw in, which often drives me up a wall, seemed natural and enhanced the characters. It was an exciting book to read!
by Caleb Carr
This is the first Caleb Carr book I've read and I enjoyed it very much! It's a murder mystery set in New York City in the 1890s. The "alienist" of the title refers to the then-budding field of psychology. Scientists were just starting to grasp the fact that a person's childhood experiences have a huge effect on their adult behavior. The group of main characters in the novel is like a proto-CSI unit... they use a variety of techniques such as behavioral analysis, profiling, fingerprinting, and many other concepts that were not yet widely accepted.
As a bonus, Carr is a terrific writer and really made me feel like I was experiencing New York 100 years ago. Even the dialect stuff that he threw in, which often drives me up a wall, seemed natural and enhanced the characters. It was an exciting book to read!
Labels: book reports
