New Yorker Hustvedt collaborates with the ghosts of her ancestors to produce a personal portrait of a fragmented America. Life in depression ridden rural Minnesota and the horror of war is invoked through entries from her dead father's diaries. Without the barrier of chapters, the narrative becomes dreamlike as the central character of tortured psychoanalyst, Erik Davidsen, exposes the reader to a series of vivid vignettes in flashback style revealing the internal demons of his immigrant family, patients and neighbours who are scarred by secrets, lies and the sorrows of being Americans. Reading this is like eating heavy chocolate sponge cake with a sweet cherry brandy centre - challenging but surprising.
