LOVE AND MADNESS

Love and Madness
By David Rehak
ISBN 1413702767
131 pages
Publish America
1998, 2003

Absolutely gorgeous cover for a book, nice font size, complete sentences, words spelled correctly, and a very quick read are all the positive things I can find about Love and Madness.

The setting begins in 1908 in an industrial city in Sweden. Karl is born into a wealthy family and chooses to work for the family newspaper even though he has no need to work. He sees on a nearby beach, the woman of his dreams while racing a boat with his family. He meets her, they fall madly in love, she gets pregnant, he has to marry her, and he ends up hating her. Her family is wealthy at first, but then they lose their wealth and Karl’s parents were also killed in a freak accident which happened immediately before his marriage. They have a son, who favors the father. Both Karl and his wife see divorce as not an alternative during this time period. The wife has a lesbian relationship and starts the rumor that her husband is crazy which eventually drives him to be considered crazy and sent to an asylum.

Except for the beginning of the book with a family discussion of religion, I just summarized the entire book. The pacing of events throughout was very uneven and the wordy dialogues frequently were not even logical. I felt no affection or realism to any of the characters. All of them were shallow and self-serving. Don’t waste your $19.95 on this book. The book is short and a fast read but not worth the time or the money. I would not consider reading another book by this author.

David Rehak is a college student at Malaspina University/College with emphasis on English literature and psychology. Maybe eventually he’ll take a creative writing class to improve his pacing and to develop a writing style.