Connections
Angela Campbell Recommends...
The Good Patient
By Kristin Waterfield Duisberg

The day that I write this review marks the eighth anniversary of my best friend's suicide. It's kind of eerie that the main character in this book has such a striking resemblance in personality and thought-processes to my friend, Tanya. These past eight years have been extremely hard on me, but this book somehow made everything make sense. Even though it is a work of fiction, the author has a great grasp, and has done a lot of research, on the topics of self-injury and mental health. And luckily, it has a much happier ending than I had to endure.

Darien is smart. Darien is beautiful. She is successful, witty, and obsessed with pain. Darien is an Ivy League graduate who works as a public relations executive in Manhattan, and married to a hot shot New York lawyer. She has it all, one would think.

This book opens with her breaking her own hand...on purpose. Her concerned husband takes her to a therapist, Dr. Lindholm. Darien would normally have the edge on any psychiatrist, as she has made a game of the profession, telling each of her therapists what they want to hear when they want to hear it. Dr. Lindholm, however, is different. She is a very caring woman with a knack for getting people to tell her their innermost fears and truths. Darien didn't know she knew the truth about herself until she stumbles and admits things about her childhood and twin sister that nobody (including herself) ever knew.

This book could have easily been a schmaltzy, tear jerking, depressing novel. A reviewer for the Denver Post stated, "[The Good Patient] works because it is not driven by angst so much as by the spirit of discovery." Luckily this first-time author has a lot of talent hidden up her sleeve. There is just enough humor added to make the subject matter bearable. And her prose is absolutely exquisite. As another review stated, "She strikes no false notes, conveying Darien's distress with an emotional honesty that is, at times, uncomfortably authentic." The really disturbing part of this novel is that Darien, like my friend Tanya, is too smart for her own good. She knows what she is doing is wrong, but doesn't know why she can't stop.

If you ever wondered why some people suffer from ailments like alcoholism, bulimia, and self-injury, this book may shed some light on the topic. What it comes down to is that you never really know how somebody feels, and there isn't anything you can do for them until they want to help themselves.

Darien is "the good patient" for many reasons. Hopefully you will take the time to read this book so you can find out what that means.