Book Review: Atmospheric Disturbances and The Forgery of Venus Although many literary references to psychiatry are so badly

executed a reader is forced to cringe in disgust, two recently published novels have folded psychiatric themes into their storylines in ways that are both entertaining and accurate. Should you find yourself looking for something to read on an endless night of call or while playing hooky from office hours, the two books below might be appealing. The protagonist of Atmospheric Disturbances (Rivka Galchen, Farrar, Straus, and Giraux, 2008, 256 pages) is Dr. Leo Liebenstein, a Manhattan psychiatrist. Poor Dr. Liebenstein suffers from Capgras syndrome, manifested in his case by the belief that his wife has been replaced by a not-quite-perfect-double, or simulacrum. While attempting to sort through the distress and confusion that accompany this belief, Dr. Liebenstein also must deal with the fallout of a critical decision the simulacrum encourages him to make. This decision involves his treatment approach to Harvey, a delusional patient who believes he is an agent of the Royal Academy of Meteorology, a highly secretive agency charged with controlling the weather. In an ill-fated attempt at alliance building, Dr. Liebenstein tells Harvey that that he is also an agent of the Royal Academy, and that he has been tasked with communicating orders to Harvey from the Academy leadership. Having so committed, Dr. Liebenstein is funneled towards increasingly bizarre and entertaining acts to keep his lie, and his life, from unraveling. Dr. Liebensteins concretely held belief that his wife has been replaced and the accommodations he must make towards his burgeoning identity as an agent of atmospheric intrigue lead him away from New York and to South America. In the cafes of Buenos Aires and the wilds of Patagonia, Dr. Liebenstein is forced to confront doubts about the authenticity of his spouses, and his own, identity. The author, Galchen, puts all her credentials (BA from Princeton with Joyce Carol Oates as thesis advisor, MD from Mt. Sinai, public health service in South America, and MFA from Columbia) to work in making the technical aspects of science and medicine read like poetry. She manages to accomplish this without hitting her readers over the head with the effort. I would venture to guess many of these readers will be looking for a follow up. In The Forgery of Venus (Michael Gruber, William Morrow Co., 2008, 336 pages), the blurring of reality is again a central facet of the storyline. The novels main character, Chaz Wilmot, is a talented but near-destitute painter who takes part in two questionable but well paying ventures in order to provide for his ill son. The first venture involves participating as a subject in a research study being undertaken by his former Columbia roommate, a successful neurologist testing a drug called Salvinorin. Purported to enhance creativity, the salvinorin experiment yields the painter

Wilmot more of a kick than anyone anticipated as he finds himself imbued with both the talent and memories of Spanish master Diego Velazquez. This leads Wilmot to his second risky for-profit venture, as he is offered an obscene amount of cash to forge lost masterpieces for an underworld art dealer. As did Rivkin, Gruber makes use of an unreliable narrator who, in the midst of a psychological crisis, is forced to question the reliability of everybody around them and to make painful compromises around the concepts of identity and memory. So, to continue on the subject of compromise, when you find yourself in a moment when reality-TV is more than you can stomach but so are your textbooks, I would recommend either of the above novels as a worthwhile and entertaining use of your time.