Freud's Alphabet

by Jonathan Tel

A brilliantly inventive and intelligent first novel about Freud's last years in London, psychoanalysing the nation as it slips into the collective madness of World War Two. Freud - dying of cancer - has come to London to escape persecution in Austria, bringing with him his famous couch, his collection of tribal totems and his insights into the English. Cared for by his biographer and doctor, Jones, Freud explores the city of Woolf and Eliot, of bankers, fishwives and travelling tradesmen, considering everything in the light of his own desire to find an underlying, rational explanation for irrational behaviour. The city, in turn, asserts its own surrealism, defying explanation, happy to prove one thing and also its opposite. In the background, the nation prepares for its greatest act of rational madness - war. Jonathan Tel's first novel is a small a brilliant and playful insight into Freud and the English; and a beautiful evocation of the period, with its buses and fogs and housewives and men in suits. It is a surrealist Wasteland, a post-modern MRS DALLOWAY.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kostas Kanellopoulos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Το αλφάβητο του Φρόυντ, εμπειρία εκδοτική είναι φόρος τιμής του συγγραφέα στο προπολεμικό Λονδίνο με αφορμή τις τελευταίες μέρες του Φρόυντ.

Ούτε για φροϋδικους

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up at a little free library in Maryland on our great summer road trip of 2018. Interesting little "what if" nugget, with bits of the esoteric dotted throughout. Not to my taste, entirely, but it had its moments. Releasing it in Asheville, on the run from Hurricane Florence. In my care, this book has travelled through 13 states and two countries, roughly 3000 miles. That's further than Freud travelled to London.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell was that? I think you're supposed to drop acid or perhaps channel Dr. Freud himself and use cocaine in order to appreciate this one.

[Vcmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, original book, reflecting on the life and ideas of Freud, while also imagining London in wartime.

[Nafiza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first came across Tel’s genius in The Beijing of Possibilities where he fills the pages with slyly connected stories that fall into place only at the very end. Freud’s Alphabet is his first collection and unlike the delightful Beijing of Possibilities, it is a whole lot more complex, smarter and perhaps just a bit inaccessible to people who are not familiar with Freud and his many theories concerning human psyche. Like me.

I believe I would have enjoyed the collection a lot more had I been better versed in Freud’s life and works. However, I have the scantiest knowledge, less than scanty, barely existing even, about Freud so I am forced to review this collection on the basis of its prose, the strength of its imagery and the slight insanity that manifested itself in a skein underneath the cadence of the written words. The stories play with language and images in a very interesting way. The stories are also collectively an ode to London. The stories are also a look at the world through a pair of spectacles that not many of us will ever get the chance to try on. The crispiness of the prose, the steadiness and confidence of the voice, these are all very interesting aspects to many of the stories. I also really liked the exploratory feelings towards expression and language in some of the stories.

I enjoyed this collection but not as much as I enjoyed Tel’s sophomore collection. This felt less human and more clinical for some reason. I hope Arafat’s Elephant is a funner read. I’d recommend this to aficionados of Freud and psychology rather than the average reader.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will be an odd review, odd because when I picked up the book to add to my bookshelf I couldn't remember a damn thing about it other than saying that I enjoyed it at the time. Flicking through it reminded me that I was impressed at the time by Tel's details; it is basically an historical novel. Why I bought it in the first place was because the chapters have alphabetical titles, from 'Apple' through 'Zebra' and I'd always wanted to write a book of my own in a dictionary-esque style. But - and it's a big but (Freudian slip there) - I can't remember the content, who narrated it or what happens and, after only a couple of years, that says a lot.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fantasia drawn on Freud's last weeks in 1930's London, a sort of dream-tour of the city in prose fragments, each headed with a letter of the alphabet, alternating with imaginary scenes of the dying Freud (called only "the Doktor") with his friend and physician Ernest Jones. Sounds difficult and icky, but it's not. There's some very funny moments in it and it's beautifully written. It's also illustrated with some archival photographs of the period. Very cool book.

[Jonathan Tel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It gave me tremendous pleasure to write this book.
i've always been interested in Freud, but it was when I read the biography of him by his disciple, Ernest Jones, that I was inspired to write about him. I tried to make the book funny, sad, and thoughtful.

[novia · Rating 3 out of 5]

still treasuring..