Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Mirror Me is a mystery unlike any other I’ve read.  It’s a story of familial dysfunction, interracial adoptions, and mental illness, ending with a twist that I never saw coming.

Eddie Asher is the adopted son of the Asher family, a well-to-do Jewish family in Manhattan.  There are four Ashers–Eddie, his mother, his father, and his older brother Robert, the Ashers’ biological child, who alternately protects and torments Eddie.

When we meet Eddie, he’s a patient at the Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital.  His therapist is the renowned Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in the condition variously known as split personality disorder, splintered personality disorder, or multiple/dissociative identity disorder.  In Eddie’s case, his “other” identity is Pär, who, along with Eddie, takes turns narrating the novel.

Whatever the condition is called, the patient has two or more distinct identities in control at various times.  The patient may have memory lapses caused by the switching of one personality to another, with one trying to gain control.  There are several causes of DID, and the reader won’t discover which one is the main cause of Eddie’s condition until nearly the end of Mirror Me.  Then perhaps you’ll wonder, as I did, why you didn’t think of it sooner.

Growing up, Eddie was the easily recognizable son, the one with brown skin.  His biological mother was a teenaged Swedish exchange student visiting New York City, his father a Black exchange student from an unknown African country.  When Britta discovers that she’s pregnant and contacts the father, she finds out he wants nothing to do with her or the expected baby.  She delivers Eddie, immediately signs the papers for him to be adopted, and leaves the hospital at once, not looking back.

The two brothers go their separate ways to college, and then Robert moves to Seattle and reconnects with Lucy, a young dancer he knows from New York City.  When Eddie visits, there’s an immediate connection with Lucy, due in part to the fact that they’re both biracial and were adopted by white Jewish families.  But, at least on Eddie’s part initially, the connection is stronger than that–is it lust or love that he feels?  And does Lucy feel the same, or is she simply a master manipulator who enjoys her power over him?

As Eddie becomes, in the words of Lucy, enmeshed with her and her family, her hold on him becomes stronger.  Eddie discovers that his is not the only dysfunctional family–Lucy’s family is as well.  And who is this Andy, whom Eddie hasn’t met but is constantly being mistaken for?

Eddie has memory lapses and occasional violent outbursts.   Pär doesn’t, but he isn’t omniscient, so can the reader trust his version of Eddie’s story?  The scenes in the hospital, with Eddie strapped down to protect himself and those around him from his violent actions, are hard to read, and we have to wonder how helpful Dr. Montgomery’s therapy is.

The novel is a disturbing look into mental illness, its causes, and its impact not only on the patient but on nearly everyone around him.  Lisa Williamson Rosenberg has written a strong mystery with conflicted and confused characters you are rooting for to conquer their demons and go on with their lives.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

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