Bohjalian’s ‘Double Bind’ has many layers

  Best-selling author Chris Bohjalian’s “The Double Bind” is full of twists and turns.
  Laurel Estabrook is attacked by two men while out on a bike ride her sophomore year in college. After the attack, she withdraws from friends, preferring to immerse herself in photography and her work at a homeless shelter. It’s at the shelter that her life becomes entangled with Bobbie Crocker, a mysterious homeless man who died and whose only possession is a box of photographs that winds up in Laurel’s hands.
  As Laurel begins to review the photographs, she finds that Bobbie had talent, as well as a secret past that she is determined to uncover. She looks to the photos for clues to who Bobbie was and how he wound up homeless.
  Her search leads to one of the more intriguing pieces of this novel, as Laurel begins to suspect that Bobbie is linked to Pamela Marshfield, the daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and possibly even Jay Gatsby.
  Yep, that Jay Gatsby.
  Laurel becomes convinced that Pamela is hiding her relationship to Bobbie and sets out to prove that Bobbie is Pamela’s brother.
  “She kept coming back to a likelihood that would cause her to fume in the water: The Buchanans — Daisy and Tom and their daughter, Pamela — had deserted a family member who needed them. A brother. A son. Like so many of the homeless she saw, Bobbie had been hung out to dry by the very people who were supposed to be there for him no matter what.”
  “The Double Bind” has plenty to offer those who have not read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” But for those who have, the book holds added enjoyment.
  In addition to tying the book into “The Great Gatsby,” Bohjalian includes themes of homelessness, mental illness, family and, ultimately, the value of life and our relationships.
  To drive his point home, Bohjalian includes real photos taken by a once-homeless man named Bob “Soupy” Campbell who died in a studio apartment. Many of the photos were of famous people from the 1950s and 1960s. Bohjalian says in the author’s note: “We tend to stigmatize the homeless and blame them for their plight. We are oblivious to the fact that most had lives as serious as our own before everything fell apart. The photographs in this book are a testimony to that reality.”
  In “The Double Bind,” Bohjalian paints a sympathetic portrait of mental illness. He keeps readers guessing in this layered novel, crafting a thrill ride while still producing a poignant work of fiction.