How to Live. What to Do: In Search of Ourselves in Life and Literature

Cohen (How to Read), a psychoanalyst and literature professor, studies the inner lives of literary characters to explore fiction’s lessons in this original if underwhelming survey. Cohen playfully begins each character study with a therapist’s note: Alice, for example, following her adventures in Wonderland, “spoke rather breathlessly of a series of peculiar exchanges and adventures with domestic, wild and extinct animal species,” while Goethe’s Young Werther is at “severe suicidal risk.” Following these vignettes are detailed psychoanalytical descriptions of the characters’ experiences and desires: in To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout Finch’s imagination is held up as a necessary aspect of childhood that helps one “approach the world with curiosity and free from the crushing weight of presumption and prejudice,” while in The Bell Jar Esther Greenwood’s inability to choose a path in life illustrates how ambition can be a source of both freedom and unhappiness. Though a fascinating line of inquiry, Cohen’s narrow literature selections overwhelmingly favor white, western authors, limiting the presumed universality of his interpretations. And the peppered-in stories of Cohen’s own clients fall flat in comparison to the depth of his literary character analyses, stifling the momentum. While the premise is a brilliant one with plenty of room for fun, readers are likely to be left wanting. (Oct.)