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Pharmakon |
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| Book: Hardcover | 5.98 x 9.01in | 416 pages | ISBN 9780670019427 | 31 Jul 2008 | Viking Adult | 18 - AND UP |
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An epic novel about family secrets and the consequences of ambition
William Friedrich, an ambitious professor of psychology at Yale in 1952, has stumbled upon a drug that promises happiness—and that can make him a famous man. When his experiment goes awry, and a research subject commits murder, the consequences will haunt him and his family forever.
Pharmakon is an epic novel, an invocation of the quest for bliss, for love, for family, and all of the betrayals that follow. We follow the Friedrichs from the well-ordered suburban life of postwar America through the chaos and freedom of the counterculture, into the drug-fueled, media-crazed eighties and beyond. In William Friedrich, Wittenborn has defined the archetypal American patriarch: a miracle worker and source of strength to everyone except those he loves the most. Pharmakon is also a layered, thoughtful search behind the veil of psychopharmacology as we know it today—a tale not only of the consequences of research, but also of the complex personalities, appetites, and struggles that created it.
Honest, insightful, and ruefully funny, Pharmakon captures formative moments of the twentieth century, the quirks of an American family, and will enthrall fans of the novels of John Irving.
Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book.
“In PHARMAKON Dirk Wittenborn has given us a fascinating portrait of a family living on the edge in the barely post-medieval age of 1950’s psychopharmacology. Both victims and perpetrators, pioneers and innocents, the saga of the Freidrichs will stay with you long after the book has been read.”
--Richard Price, author of LUSH LIFE
"In PHARMAKON, Dirk Wittenborn has given us a haunting illustration of the Tolstoyan maxim that every unhappy family is unique in its unhappiness, though in fact no one who has ever been part of a family can fail to feel pangs of recognition as they follow the saga of the Friedrich family across three tumultuous generations. PHARMAKON is an ambitious and memorable novel."
—Jay McInerney, author of BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY and BRIGHTNESS FALLS
"PHARMAKON is an old-fashioned novel about a modern subject--set in the past but completely relevant to where we are today. It might remind you of mid-period John Irving, but gentler. And just when you've settled into a groove the book takes surprising--sometimes shocking--turns. Beneath all the pain there's hope coursing through these pages, and in the end don't be surprised if you find yourself moved to tears."
—Bret Easton Ellis
"A brilliant portrait of a young family of the 1950s, possessed of the particular qualities of post-war America -- optimism, prosperity and security -- and the inevitable loss of innocence as both country and family encounter the challenges of maturity. Dirk Wittenborn's provocative book is sharply observed; a subtle and wise fable of our time."
--Susanna Moore, author of In The Cut
“Eerie, authentic, and always with heart, Pharmakon is a slow-burning triumph.”
--Marisha Pessl, author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
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