Maxine’s brain is stuck. Everything around her feels wrong and the only way to fix it is to check, double-check, rearrange and count everything. What Maxine can’t fix though is her parents’ constant nagging over the absence of a husband. A humiliation that is further compounded when her younger brother runs off with Miss Perfect. Then she meets Sam, a smooth-talking charmer with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and enough terminal diseases to wipe out a small village. Maxine decides that Sam is her salvation, never mind that his life is more depressing than a Greek tragedy, and others are urging her to get away from him. The problem is that Sam has Maxine under his spell. Will Maxine escape from Sam before it is too late?
I wanted to write a story from the point of view of someone with distorted thinking. As a neuroscientist, I’ve always been fascinated by mental illness, and especially obsessive compulsive disorder. I’m a little OCD myself, so had no trouble making the character, Maxine, suffer, and convincingly so. There are too many people suffering in silence from symptoms of OCD that are not written in all the text books nor publicized in shocking television documentaries. Believe it or not, many sufferers of OCD are not obsessed by hygiene, checking the oven or hoarding. These are the OCD sufferers who suffer in embarrassed silence. My aim is to use Maxine and her excruciatingly embarrassing, non-textbook symptoms to give these people a voice. Sociopaths are fascinating too, because they are everywhere (4% of the population apparently). Whether a spouse, partner, colleague or relative, most people (whether they know it or not) have a sociopath in their life. I had one in my life and found him fascinating. The way they can look you right in the eye and lie. The fact that they are capable of anything because they are not limited by the same moral boundaries as the rest of us. Even the way they talk, they have this amazing ability to monologue incessantly while actually revealing nothing. I wanted specifically to capture this trait in my sociopath’s voice. What’s particularly interesting about mixing the OCD sufferer with the sociopath is the combing of a person who feels constant mental pain with one who feels nothing at all.
Zippy, The Review Broads: I loved that Charbit pulls us deliciously and dangerously into Maxine’s world gracefully and seamlessly; we have all had these kinds of relationships, and Maxine’s world is so carefully compiled, chapter by chapter, that I felt I was Maxine in the throes of co-dependency! Ms. Charbit’s talent is in her characterizations, timing and emotional nuance. A very good first novel, and I believe Charbit’s next novel will be more compelling, as she shows every sign of an author to watch. As Maxine goes from clueless to savvy, and Sam’s dreary tale comes out, we can’t wait to turn the page to find out what Maxine will do. Well done, good read.
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