Book Reviews & Giveaway: Day for Night

Author: Frederick Reiken

With lofty ambition, “Day for Night” juxtaposes multiple personality disorder with the Holocaust, creating a collage of puzzle pieces entangled and convoluted with characters that play connect the dot. The pivotal point is Dillon, a young man who has survived a terrible motorcycle accident in Israel. Dillon is now in a coma. Dillon and his sister Dee (Gwendine) are from Utah, siblings of a cult family that does not want to let them go. Although the novel touches on MPD (multiple personality disorder), it does not show – rather it tells. This inserts a robotic aspect to Dillon and Dee that proves unfortunate – they must emerge as complexities, not a simple story line. The other characters – Beverly and Natalie Rabinowitz, Amnon, an Israeli park ranger, evolve from the Holocaust. Doris, the mother of Natalie, is a survivor of Auschwitz. Morris, her husband relates the story. Morris, the husband, makes witness.

As the characters intertwine the puzzle becomes a labyrinth, but one which does not fight or find the Minotaur. Life and death is the thematic of the book and I hoped that the novel would plunge us into those depths a little deeper than it did. However, Reiken’s intellectual approach and perfect technique detract for me from what could have been a most powerful novel. Reiken misses the key component of multiplicity, the emotional confluence of warring parts inside the human mind and simplifies the characters struggles. When a strange woman steals Dillon and reintegrates the dying part that has kept him in his coma, Dillon re-emerges as an intact character. While I admire Reiken’s intense effort, the saga falls flat with no emotional context to adhere to.

Great effort however, and well worth reading for this is a complex novel about important issues that are not often attempted in a work of fiction.

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale

Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Presentation: 4
Overall: 4

Book Review by Broad “A” – Ava

Day for Night: A Novel is available at Amazon.com $16.49

Thank you to the Hachette Book Group for providing this title for our book review as well as this giveaway. We were in no way paid or compensated for our opinions.

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