I really like the first section of this novel, but it starts to lose me about a third of the way through. The narrator, a psychiatrist named Leo Liebenstein, believes his wife has been replaced by a simulacrum, and he sets out to find his real wife. He is also looking for one of his patients, who believes himself to be a secret agent able to control the weather.
When Leo is dealing with his wife (or her simulacrum), the story has a strong emotional core under Leo's psychosis. When he ties his wife's disappearance to meteorology and heads off to Argentina, it is far less grounded and loses my interest. I think it was a mistake to introduce two crazy people and two largely distinct delusions.
In other words, I like Atmospheric Disturbances to the extent that it is an experimental novel "about the mysterious nature of human relationships," and I'm disappointed in it to the extent that it wanders away from that central theme.
When Leo is dealing with his wife (or her simulacrum), the story has a strong emotional core under Leo's psychosis. When he ties his wife's disappearance to meteorology and heads off to Argentina, it is far less grounded and loses my interest. I think it was a mistake to introduce two crazy people and two largely distinct delusions.
In other words, I like Atmospheric Disturbances to the extent that it is an experimental novel "about the mysterious nature of human relationships," and I'm disappointed in it to the extent that it wanders away from that central theme.
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