The apearance of a previously hidden theme

I just recently realized a theme present in the book Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen that has been present the whole book. Galchen makes the point that an extended drive toward deciphering the words of the mad can drive the curious pursuant of the truth mad as well. It is rather difficult to find quotes for this theme, since the author has been supporting this theme since the beginning of the book, and I just haven't noticed. One time madness may be overcoming Leo is in the library, when he is researching the works of Tzvi Gal-Chen. He decides that he has not "abandoned my faith in experimental controls. I quickly wrote down three more note cards: HERONS, WOOL PROCESSING, HEMOCHROMATOSIS"(55). These three research topics are totally random, but Leo thinks they may lead him to results based upon random occurances that seem coherent. This ideal much the same as Leo's patient, Harvey's assumptions about his day based upon the weather. Leo has spent so much time hunting down his missing psychosis patient that he is also going crazy. Another example of Leo's possible descent into psychosis is when Leo is taking a 'primary investigation' of where Harvey is. He decides to take "the number 1 train heading downtown... Near the bottom of the island, I exited, ascended, crossed the street, redescended, waited, and reboarded the subway going uptown."(33). Leo is so obsessed with finding Harvey and learning his thought patterns that he also goes crazy, trying to find 'evidence' by taking the subway in circles.
Another thing that the author Galchen does to make her novel interesting is add strange thoughts that everyone thinks but no one voices to her book. Leo wakes up from a nightmare, and it is still the middle of the night. He complains that "I tried to fall back asleep, and I think I did, but it was the kind of sleep where one later wakes up exhausted, with the convction of having slept not more than minutes"(49). This has happened to everyone at some point, and helps us conect this book to reality. It also is interesting and refreshing to see that in a book, since so little of these obscure phenomena are actually published. Later, Leo is talking about a trip he had to Austria with Rema, and says to her (honestly, he thinks at the time), that he can 'more or less' speak German. He later reflects that "I thought I'd remember German despite having never actually forgotten it, having never-as I vaguely felt I might have- listened to German radio broadcasts, or spoken German as a child. But we get these wrong feelings sometimes, feelings like articles slipped into our luggage but not properly ours"(56). This has happened to me quite a lot, where I gte the feeling that I have done something I haven't. When I read this, I was interested by how perfectly this matches the experience I have had with this phenomena. Soon after, I asked my parents if they have noticed this happen, and they have. It is incredible how widespread this observance is. These observations help keep Galchen's novel alive and readably interesting. They also help set up Leo's eccentric and detail oriented persona.

A topic/the Author's Style

For quarter 3 reading, I chose the book atmospheric disturbances by Rivka Galchen. The book is about a man who comes home one day and believes his wife has been replaced with a duplicate. He spends the remainder of the book (as far as I know), attempting to locate her. It has many topics, major ones, almost one each chapter, but I believe one of the important underlying ones in the first section of the book is the point of appearances. Dr. Leo Liebenstein is a psychiatrist. From the author's descriptions, Leo is astute and fits his job. In the very first page of the book, Leo notices (about his wife) that she had the "Same everyting, but it wasn't Rema"(1). He goes on to make several psychological observations about why the fake Rema (his wife) is different than the real one. The topic here, physical appearance as a defining aspect of a person, is brought up in this quote. Any man such as Leo who has lived with someone for an extent of time will come to be accustomed to their idiosyncracies and subtle traits. The imitation has the same appearance, the same Argentinian accent, even the same flawed english. But to a psychologist, or to one with a close bond to Rema, it is obvious that the woman in his apartment is an immitation, jdging just, for one example, by her love of dogs. Another line applying to this topic comes in a part of the book when Leo and (the false) Rema are having a conversation at home. Leo thinks "the longer I stared at that knuckle the more it grew foreign rather than familiar. Pretty hands. Pretty knuckles. Pretty little way of holding a tea mug"(30). Leo knows the doppelganger is not the real Rema simply because of the real Rema's quirky inability to look 'pretty'. He knows an impostor even from a small gesture with a tea mug. This staunchly supports the topic of image and appearance. It says that appearance is not a good judge of character (or reality) and that judging solely by image will throw you off course.
Another interesting thing about this book is the unique literary style. This is the first book of author Rivka Galchen. She has an MD as a fiction author and therefore has the somewhat groundbreaking potential to write detail oriented yet emotional prose. There are examples all over the text, but one that stands out in particular is actually the chapter titles. One chapter, divided into subchapters, has the titles "my mesalliance"(18) and "A pyrrhic victory"(21) for the subchapters. I had to look up mesalliance (anxiety), and pyrrhic (initial) to understand the meaning of the chapter. I actually find this to be a good thing since not only does the interesting word choice keep you on your toes and provide better description, but it also emphasized certain underused words that prove to be key. I think the author did this on purpose, to help the reader understand the important points of the rather convoluted plot. Another unique literary trait of this book is the sort of 'analyzing sentance' at the end of each chapter. At the end of chapter 5, Leo says "Though my initial progress did not look or feel like progress, I believe it was a kind of progress, that of just staying in place, of not slipping backward into despair"(34) These summarizing sentances, at the end of almost every chapter, are quite useful to better understand the story's progression. They also give the reader a sub-topic to chew on, (a clincher?) For example, this 'summary' makes the reader wonder if non-regression can constitute progress. This aspect of the wirting style helps keep the reader interested and following the plot.