Barbara Black BOOK REVIEW The Case of Emily V, by Keith Oatley, Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd., 407 pp., softcover AVING APPRISED myself of the contents of this most ambitious beok, | can assure you, as one who applies the most stringent standards to reading materials, that it is a capital achievement. The book is The Case of Emily V; its author a professor of psy- chology with a flair for imitating writing of the turn of the century. Think back to the breath-defying, circuitous sentences of William James, the elaborate psychologi- » cal narratives of Thomas Mann or Dostoevsky and you have the writing style of The Case of Emily V. It’s an unapologetically intel- lectual parody of the diary, the scientific article and detective fic- tion. It’s fiction cleverly disguised as documentary writing, com- ‘plete with authentic references to other literary works of the era. Oatley begins the book by explaining how he came into the possession of three turn-of-the- Century manuscripts, one by Sigmund Freud, another by Dr. John Watson and the third a diary of his distant relative, one Emily V (a pseudonym). The three works, it turns out, are linked, in that while Freud was treating Emily V, Sherlock Holmes and his tireless companion Dr. Watson were investigating a case which impli- cated Emily V in the very crime for which she was undergoing psychoanalysis. ‘ Oatley delivers a sober testa- _ ment to the authenticity of these manuscripts arid, in true post- modern fashion, assures the read- "er that this book is not in the league of that merely fictional account of the meeting of Sherlock Holmes and Freud called The Seven Per-Cent Solution. in fact, in this “true” account, the famous detective and the famous psychologist meet out of Dr. Watson's concern for his cotleague’s fits of post-case melancholia. Divided roughly into three sections comprising the diary accounts of Emily’s “neuroses,” Prof, Freud’s version of Emily’s neuroses, and finally Dr. Watson’s account of “The Viennese Affair,” the book rides on an air of perspicuity. [t is part mystery, part medical journal, part narrative . Emily V, distraught at the death of her guardian, Mr. S., lapses into a state of severe depression. Her friend, Sara, Correction note LAST WEEK’S review of Teaching Your Cat to Read by Barbara Black was actu- ally written by News book reviewer John Moore. Moore’s next book review will appear in the Now sec- tion of the July 27 paper. advises she take therapy from a well-known Viennese doctor named Freud. While Emily is aware that her guardian's improp- er advances may have driven her to push him of a cliff, Freud is convinced that Emily’s molesta- tions are a figment of her then- pubescent imagination. He deliv- ers a scientific paper espousing this point of view. Emily’s very astute friend, Sara, who is a sort of female Holmes, correctly assumes that the current justice system would nat defend Emily’s action in the case. She advises her friend to keep a low profile: “You do not understand that only men will speak in the matter. No woman's voice is on ai heard to ask if men will be able to judge truly...Most of all, many men do not think women are seri- ous.” We have here the early rumblings of feminism nicely insinuated inta the plot. Just when things finally setilect down for the two wornen, who, by the way, now enjoy a some- what improper liaison, in come Watson and Holmes fast on the trail of the mysterious case of Mr, S. when, (in spite a fear of heights, seems to have fallen off a mountainside in Austria, Naturally, their investigations lead them to Emily V. There is something to a good parody which makes you feel oth ridicule and appreciation for With Salvador’s, all you have to do is add the ice and garnish for the perfect Margarita every time. Enjoy Salvador’s Original (lime) or Strawberry—now available at your Government Liquor Store. It's so easy...so delicious! os, ~ ~ ~--- the original work. This is certainly the case with the Holmes section of the book. Watson begins his account with a note of concern for Holrries; “Mr. Sherlock Holmes, although pre-eminent in intellect in the investigation of crime as {| have often recounted, was occasionally unable to mas- ter aspects of his own exceptional character.” Thus, it is that Watson starts to read about “nervous afflictions” in an attempt to help his friend. When events overlap, Oatley has Freud and Holmes meeting and remarking on the similarity of their respective methods. Afterwards, Holmes seems to undergo a transformation; he r of perspicuity seems fess obsessive about clos- ing the case of Ermily V, But now Erally herself looks for Freudlan “discrepancies and motives” in the behavior of Mr. Holmes, After the usual hot pursuit of clues, the case rests and Emily and Sara go hack to enjoying a Stein/Toklas sort of existence In Paris. The buok closes with a phony postscript by a female psy: chologist wha comments on the validity of Freud’s conclusions. She gets the fast word: “It does little for any of us with a commit- ment to intellectual matters to find that one who gives hims .If the title of ‘scientist’ should snecr at fiction, as if science alone were the arbiter of truth.”