Blake's Therapy

by Ariel Dorfman

Blake's Therapy is a whirlwind ride through the desires of one man to find something real in a virtual world. After suffering a mental breakdown, Graham Blake checks into the Corporate Life Therapy Institute, where the self-assured, silver-tongued Dr. Carl Tolgate has prepared a strange, shocking, and erotic treatment. Now Blake must find out, before it is too late, who is controlling his life, his company’s future, and his own heart.
A work of intense psychological intrigue, Blake's Therapy holds a magnifying glass to one man’s life as it unravels in a world of economic turmoil and spiritual crisis.

Genres: Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.

Reviews

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Blake's Therapy is a short book it is one that needs pondering over. It is difficult to discern reality and truth among the conflicting narrative voices. The book opens with a lecture from an unnamed therapist who proclaims that we are here to help Graham Blake. What follows is what appears to be the therapy where Blake, a CEO of a huge multinational company is at the verge of a breakdown and must learn to weigh his power over the personal comfort and freedom of his employees. From there things get sketchy: are the people Blake is interacting with real or just actors? Has his therapy ended by the close of the book? The last chapter is a report from our unnamed therapist to Blake's ex-wife but the details here are still fuzzy.

If you enjoy clear cut plots and well defined characters, Blake's Therapy isn't for you. If however you like to be challenged and enjoy stories with multiple realities, then I recommend Blake's Therapy to you. In terms of tone and general themes, the novel reminds me of the Argentine film Hombre mirando al sudeste (1986). If you haven't seen the film, then I recommend a weekend combo of watching the film and reading this book.

[Zeka Sixx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro faz parte da coleção "Plenos Pecados", lançada no final dos anos 90 pela Editora Objetiva, na qual sete escritores foram convidados para escrever sobre os pecados capitais (talvez no embalo do sucesso do filme "Se7en", de David Fincher?), e cujo título mais famoso é "A Casa dos Budas Ditosos".

"Terapia", do chileno Ariel Dorfman, tem como tema central o pecado da avareza. O livro narra a história de Graham Blake, um poderoso empresário, dono de uma multinacional, cuja vida aparentemente perfeita vem sendo atrapalhada por crises inexplicadas de ansiedade e uma severa insônia que estão praticamente lhe incapacitando.

Por indicação de um amigo, Blake decide, então, se submeter (ao custo de 3 milhões de dólares) a um tratamento nada ortodoxo na clínica Terapia Vital. O tratamento, ele descobre, nada mais é do que uma espécie de Big Brother particular: durante 30 dias, ele vai observar o cotidiano de uma família comum, de empregados de sua empresa, através de câmeras escondidas no apartamento deles. Com um detalhe sórdido: Blake poderá "brincar de Deus", decidindo o destino dos integrantes da família. Basta uma ordem dele e a clínica arranjará uma maneira de seu desejo ser atendido.

A premissa do livro me lembrou muito o excelente filme "Vidas em Jogo" (curiosamente, também do David Fincher), com alguns ecos de "O Show de Truman". A trama é repleta de reviravoltas (algumas previsíveis, outras bem surpreendentes) e a construção da narrativa (alternando as vozes de Blake e de Tolgate, seu terapeuta) é muito boa, prendendo o leitor durante todo o tempo. Certamente daria um belo filme - ou até mesmo um episódio de "Black Mirror". Achei, contudo, que ficou faltando um final mais bombástico, à altura do restante do livro. Fiquei com a impressão de que o autor não sabia direito como encerrar a história.

[Dudu Zen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Primeiro capítulo: maravilhoso!!!
Segundo capítulo: interessantíssimo!
Mas do terceiro em diante....af
O livro termina, você fica com uma cara de ué e claro que depois começa a pensar que a avareza na verdade não é necessariamente sobre dinheiro e aí as coisas fazem mais sentido , mas a leitura emora bastante fluída fica desinteressante a cada capítulo....e no final cerrtamente não vale a pena pegar pra ler. :(

[Naraiana Benone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Livro de machinho. O protagonista tem uma grande preocupação em aparentar ser bom e magnânimo, mas seu maior interesse é ter poder para decidir a vida das pessoas, tal qual seu médico. Até que seria uma boa premissa, mas os dois personagens são bem sem graça.

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sem dúvida, um dos PIORES livros que já li na vida....

[Özlem Akdeniz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kusura bakmayın ama zaman kaybı, okuyana hicbir şey katmayan gereksiz detaylarla dolu bir kitap. Ne karakterlerle özdeşleştim, ne de hikayeyi samimi buldum. Okumasaniz da olur .

[Patrick Diego · Rating 3 out of 5]

De certa forma eu me identifico com o conflito do protagonista, mas a escrita acaba por ser bastante cansativa ainda no primeiro 1/3.

[Jurassicseb · Rating 2 out of 5]

forgot to log this. it wore thin by the end. watch the game (1997) instead

[Stephanie A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Assigned in class, creepy and weird. Wait, hang on, I found a blog post about it so you can have authentic thoughts circa 2008!

[Furthering my "adult books suck" hypothesis, Blake's Therapy is written in such a dazed, dream-like way, weaving between both temporal and physical settings, that it starts to put the reader into the same state of entrancement. I know this because I keep getting the feeling that I'm drifting off, only to find when I come to my senses that I've been steadily punching the book's cover again and again.

I'm just getting irritated at everything that happens. I can't figure out what message the author is trying to say about society or human nature as a whole (I know he's saying something, and I'm equally sure it won't impress me), but as of right now, a little over the halfway point, it bugs me without my being able to put my finger on precisely why. I mean, besides all the references to sexual activity that REALLY. I DON'T NEED TO READ, AT ALL, except that they're sort of inextricably woven into the framework of what makes this character tick, and thus I refer you back to "adult books suck."

There's just something nettlesome about the whole therapy experiment, both the concept itself and the choices the patient makes during it. (Raise your hand if you feel weirdly guilty playing The Sims after reading this book!) And of course, the therapist's condescending tone of "I know best and this will work" makes me want to throttle him all the time.

Update #2: "I finished the book. It did not improve."]

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know nothing about this author and can't remember where I picked up this book - maybe from the $1 shelf at The Strand one afternoon? In any case, I quite enjoyed this spare book with so many threads of competing narrative. I always like well-written unreliable narrator stories, so my bias might be showing here, but I loved the way this book weaved different realities together. I was also laughing along with the witty send-up of corporations and corporate control as well as psychiatric "treatment". Really a fun book.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually own the Spanish version of this book. Dorfman wrote both the English and Spanish versions himself, so one day I hope to read Blake's Therapy (The Spanish version is title Terapia). The continuing saga of globalization...

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhilarating! The prose is spare, the indictment of corporate capitalism unsparing. And a really good, quick read. Also I thought the book was simply but gorgeously designed.

[Jorge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una muy buena historia, con mucho para pensar. ¿Qué seríamos capaces de hacer si podemos interferir en la vida de las personas si nadie supiera?

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to like this more than I did. Fascinating concept, page-turning energy at first, but somehow I never felt like it went anywhere.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coleção Plenos Pecados: Avareza.

It's a collection of books based on the deadly sins. This one, called "Therapy" is about greed.

Very good book, fast read.