Split personality
Jefferson Chase offers us another recent whisky read
The moral of Matt Ruffâs Set This House in Order might be: watch out for the eggnog â especially if you canât be entirely sure whoâs drinking it.
Baffled? You should be. The hero of this complex novel of suspense from 2003 is a so-called âmultiple,â an individual whose personality splits into separate identities or âsoulsâ in response to a massive childhood trauma. The lead personality is called Andy Gage â but as we soon learn, heâs got some heavy competition.
The book opens with an account of Andyâs birth and his complicated mental landscape.
With the help of a good doctor named Danielle Grey, my father worked to establish order. In place of the dark room, he constructed a geography in Andy Gageâs head, a sun-lit countryside where the souls could see and talk to one another. He created the house, so theyâd have a place to liveâ¦The effort to construct the house exhausted my father, and left him with little enthusiasm for dealing with the outside world. But someone had to run the body; and so, on the day the last shingle was nailed in place, my father went down to the lake and called my name.
Itâs a strategy that works. Despite the rival personalities in his head â which include a foul-mouthed adolescent, a Greek fitness fanatic and a banished evil spirit called Gideon â Andy Gage becomes a functional member of society, holding a job at a Seattle software company.
But in order to maintain control, the Andy Gage personality has to keep a .....
To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue
or subscribe to Whisky Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.
You can unlock and read this entire article with 1 of your community tokens by clicking here.
By Jefferson Chase
Section : Whisky Literature
Page number : 48
