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Out of Mind
"Bergen's power as a writer pulls like an undertow... An uncanny, discerning, merciful algebra on what love takes, and where it leaves us." — Paige Cooper In Out of Mind , David Bergen delves into the psyche of Lucille Black, mother, grandmother, lover, psychiatrist, and analyst of self, who first appeared in Bergen’s bestselling novel The Matter with Morris . Although adept at probing the lives of others, Lucille has become untethered, caught between duty and desire, between the demands of family and her own longing. Her ex-husband Morris betrays her by publishing a memoir about the aftermath of their son Martin’s death in Afghanistan. She travels to Thailand to attempt to extricate her youngest daughter from the clutches of an apparent cult leader. And she is invited to the south of France to attend the marriage of a man whom she rejected a year earlier. Negotiating with herself about her altered role in the lives of her family and friends, Lucille circles the globe — and herself. In this brilliant and subtle evocation of vulnerability and loss, Bergen traces one woman’s quest to reform her identity, reminding us that the unexpected is always lying in wait.
196 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 2021
2 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
David Bergen
28 books104 followersBorn in Port Edward, British Columbia, author David Bergen worked as a writer and high school English teacher in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before gaining a great deal of recognition in Canada when his novel The Time In Between won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious literary awards. The novel also received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews and was longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award.
Bergen's debut novel, A Year of Lesser, was a New York Times Notable Book, and a winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in 1997. His 2002 novel The Case of Lena S. was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. It was also a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Additionally, Bergen has received the 1993 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and the 2000 Canadian Literary Award for Short Story.
In 2008, he published his fifth novel, The Retreat, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Bergen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family.
Bergen's debut novel, A Year of Lesser, was a New York Times Notable Book, and a winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in 1997. His 2002 novel The Case of Lena S. was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for English language fiction, and won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. It was also a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Additionally, Bergen has received the 1993 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and the 2000 Canadian Literary Award for Short Story.
In 2008, he published his fifth novel, The Retreat, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
Bergen currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
October 7, 2023
I didn’t find this recent Bergen novel as engaging as his latest book (and my latest read) Away from the Dead. The characters in Out of Mind were all quite unlikeable, except Baptiste, the only truly honest person in the book—a WYSIWYG, you might say. He wasn’t the least bit worried about how he appeared to others. He was completely free of airs, and wanted only to love. It mattered not at all that his love was many years his senior. Sadly, it did matter to the woman he loved—Lucille, our main protagonist.
Lucille is a practising psychiatrist who’s led a rather charmed life. But lately she’s been feeling detached, and the only person she’s analysing now is herself. Her ex-husband has a new wife and child and he’s published an embarrassing memoir. Her young daughter ran off to Thailand to live with a cult. No one will listen to her! She’s unable to control anything! And then she receives the catalyst that begins the introspection. It’s an invitation to attend a wedding in France… Baptiste’s wedding.😧
The book leaves several loose ends flapping in the wind. Normally that might bug me a little but, this time, I was good with it!🤷♀️ Sometimes I like a book that let's me imagine how things might have ended!🤔 It just depends on the book, I guess.
Bergen’s written eleven novels to date, and this was my third. I enjoy his writing style immensely, so I’m going to continue reading my way through his 8 remaining novels, and I’ll be grateful to know that, by the time I finish, there will likely be another on the way.
3.5, rounded to 4 “Sometimes you have to let your heart do the thinking” stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lucille is a practising psychiatrist who’s led a rather charmed life. But lately she’s been feeling detached, and the only person she’s analysing now is herself. Her ex-husband has a new wife and child and he’s published an embarrassing memoir. Her young daughter ran off to Thailand to live with a cult. No one will listen to her! She’s unable to control anything! And then she receives the catalyst that begins the introspection. It’s an invitation to attend a wedding in France… Baptiste’s wedding.😧
The book leaves several loose ends flapping in the wind. Normally that might bug me a little but, this time, I was good with it!🤷♀️ Sometimes I like a book that let's me imagine how things might have ended!🤔 It just depends on the book, I guess.
Bergen’s written eleven novels to date, and this was my third. I enjoy his writing style immensely, so I’m going to continue reading my way through his 8 remaining novels, and I’ll be grateful to know that, by the time I finish, there will likely be another on the way.
3.5, rounded to 4 “Sometimes you have to let your heart do the thinking” stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
September 17, 2021
Bergen’s absorbing and lightly plotted work of psychological fiction focuses on Lucille Black, an introspective psychiatrist in her fifties who offers psychotherapy rather than psychoactive-drug prescriptions to her patients. Lucille has been receiving distressing phone calls and text messages from her daughter. Libby, a medical student uncertain about her chosen path in life, has recently travelled to Thailand, mainly because it was the cheapest place to go. It’s unclear if she is attempting to escape or to discover herself—perhaps both. The young woman has fallen in with a group of young people—young women, to be precise—who live on a compound in the Thai coastal city of Pattaya. Lucille initially refers to the group her daughter has joined as a “club”, later it’s a “cult”, and at one point, Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale
comes to mind. It’s run by a charismatic huckster called Shane, who practises what Libby describes as psychotherapy on his young female devotees. He likes the girls thin, clad in shapeless denim dresses, and their hair simply braided. Later, the reader learns that the feistier they are, the more attractive he finds them.
Ostensibly, the group’s aim is to teach English and sewing to young girls whose families have sold them into the sex trade for the price of a pickup truck. Libby tells her mother she and Shane love each other, and there is talk of marriage. Lucille believes her daughter is lost and resolves that before travelling to France for the August wedding of a young male “friend”, she’ll first fly to Thailand to wrest her from Shane’s psychological grip or at least talk some sense into her.
Bergen’s book, a companion to his 2010 novel The Matter with Morris (which I haven’t yet read) isn’t just about a mother-daughter relationship. It’s also a study of a woman’s life and conflicts. Lucille takes stock of formative experiences in childhood and youth and considers the failure of her marriage to Morris a decade before. Prior to the marital dissolution, the couple’s soldier son, Martin, had been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, and Morris, a newspaper columnist, had gone off the rails
Rarely does a reader know a character as well as she knows Lucille by the end of the book. People who appreciate a well-developed plot might not find this novel to their liking, but Bergen’s sensitive, nuanced, skillfully unembellished writing about the complexity of human relationships and the challenge of finding balance in life will reward those who value character-driven literary fiction. I’ll admit that I did not find some aspects of the novel’s conclusion wholly satisfying. I refer here to Lucille’s fairly long and intimate conversation with a new acquaintance, which seemed too convenient to convince. Ultimately, however, a decision she makes at the end testifies to a kind of growth and acceptance of things as they are.
Ostensibly, the group’s aim is to teach English and sewing to young girls whose families have sold them into the sex trade for the price of a pickup truck. Libby tells her mother she and Shane love each other, and there is talk of marriage. Lucille believes her daughter is lost and resolves that before travelling to France for the August wedding of a young male “friend”, she’ll first fly to Thailand to wrest her from Shane’s psychological grip or at least talk some sense into her.
Bergen’s book, a companion to his 2010 novel The Matter with Morris (which I haven’t yet read) isn’t just about a mother-daughter relationship. It’s also a study of a woman’s life and conflicts. Lucille takes stock of formative experiences in childhood and youth and considers the failure of her marriage to Morris a decade before. Prior to the marital dissolution, the couple’s soldier son, Martin, had been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, and Morris, a newspaper columnist, had gone off the rails
Rarely does a reader know a character as well as she knows Lucille by the end of the book. People who appreciate a well-developed plot might not find this novel to their liking, but Bergen’s sensitive, nuanced, skillfully unembellished writing about the complexity of human relationships and the challenge of finding balance in life will reward those who value character-driven literary fiction. I’ll admit that I did not find some aspects of the novel’s conclusion wholly satisfying. I refer here to Lucille’s fairly long and intimate conversation with a new acquaintance, which seemed too convenient to convince. Ultimately, however, a decision she makes at the end testifies to a kind of growth and acceptance of things as they are.
January 20, 2022
Gorgeous gorgeous book. I loved every page of this. Every storyline, every tangent, every observation. This man can write. I already knew this, but damn. It’s just so stunning. Breathtaking prose and imagery. Quiet, devastating, romantic, melancholic, honest, human. (I haven’t written creatively in like 2 years and this book has inspired me to try again). Fave book of the year (although it’s competing with one of my current reads)
June 10, 2022
I liked this book. It my first time reading this author’s work. I will definitely read more. Though I’m not fond of the lack of dialogue tags.
This book is like a snapshot of moments.
Don’t look for any kind of resolution or closure in this book.
Here are some of my favourite lines from this book.
They were leaning into each other, which was meant to be a sure sign of something, but to Lucille it simply indicated codependence.
He was usually a talker, and hid his anxiety by feigning a meditative state.
Lucille had a theory that tattoos were crying for attention, an exterior response to an unfilled interior.
I’m sorry. It’s just that I worry. I wonder where he comes from, what other lives he’s lived. If he has children.
Get rid of vanity, and competition, and even mirrors, and you will have time to look inside yourself, he said.
You don’t understand. You have a career. You have your three children. You are vibrant. There will come a day, Lucille, when you will be wearing my shoes, pacing your own little place and wondering how you got there. It is unavoidable.
The fact was that marriage was ultimately disappointing and most were bound to fail, and even if the couple stayed together, there was often deleterious force of habit that shaped a long-term relationship, and one either lived with it or ran from it.
Juan asked Lucille why she use the word thinking. And then he talked about the word falling and he wondered if it was possible to think while one was falling, to think in a clear and logical manner, or would one just panic, and perhaps try to flap one’s arms futilely, and then he wondered if someone half Lucille’s age would have half of her wisdom. And then he asked how she felt.
Juan had said long ago, about young people and sex. About when young people have sex, they are holding on to someone when they haven’t learned to hold on to themselves. It was about a lack of skin, a lack of identity. Two anxious people hanging on to each other, and in order to give it meaning, they call it love.
Can you imagine if others had known? How they would have laughed at me?
And so, you keep hiding.
If I had known, I wouldn’t have come.
They would ever see each other again. This was the nature of travelling — meeting strangers, becoming intimate with them, and then saying goodbye.
She could’ve told the whole truth. Which was that she was tired of others.
If those kinds of lines strike a chord with you, the book is worth reading!
This book is like a snapshot of moments.
Don’t look for any kind of resolution or closure in this book.
Here are some of my favourite lines from this book.
They were leaning into each other, which was meant to be a sure sign of something, but to Lucille it simply indicated codependence.
He was usually a talker, and hid his anxiety by feigning a meditative state.
Lucille had a theory that tattoos were crying for attention, an exterior response to an unfilled interior.
I’m sorry. It’s just that I worry. I wonder where he comes from, what other lives he’s lived. If he has children.
Get rid of vanity, and competition, and even mirrors, and you will have time to look inside yourself, he said.
You don’t understand. You have a career. You have your three children. You are vibrant. There will come a day, Lucille, when you will be wearing my shoes, pacing your own little place and wondering how you got there. It is unavoidable.
The fact was that marriage was ultimately disappointing and most were bound to fail, and even if the couple stayed together, there was often deleterious force of habit that shaped a long-term relationship, and one either lived with it or ran from it.
Juan asked Lucille why she use the word thinking. And then he talked about the word falling and he wondered if it was possible to think while one was falling, to think in a clear and logical manner, or would one just panic, and perhaps try to flap one’s arms futilely, and then he wondered if someone half Lucille’s age would have half of her wisdom. And then he asked how she felt.
Juan had said long ago, about young people and sex. About when young people have sex, they are holding on to someone when they haven’t learned to hold on to themselves. It was about a lack of skin, a lack of identity. Two anxious people hanging on to each other, and in order to give it meaning, they call it love.
Can you imagine if others had known? How they would have laughed at me?
And so, you keep hiding.
If I had known, I wouldn’t have come.
They would ever see each other again. This was the nature of travelling — meeting strangers, becoming intimate with them, and then saying goodbye.
She could’ve told the whole truth. Which was that she was tired of others.
If those kinds of lines strike a chord with you, the book is worth reading!
August 30, 2021
Bergen is the Canadian, Coetzee. His writing hooks you in from the first page until the last.
In Out of Mind, David Bergen greets us with Lucille Black, who first appeared in Bergen's novel The Matter with Morris. He traces her quest to reform her identity, reminding us that the unexpected is always lying in wait.
Giller 2021? I hope so!
In Out of Mind, David Bergen greets us with Lucille Black, who first appeared in Bergen's novel The Matter with Morris. He traces her quest to reform her identity, reminding us that the unexpected is always lying in wait.
Giller 2021? I hope so!
December 13, 2021
If you didn’t know, you would swear the author is a woman. All Bergen’s books are great.
January 16, 2022
Probably my least favourite of David Bergen's writings. A divorced psychiatrist travels to Thailand after receiving disturbing texts from her daughter. More of a self analysis of this lady letting her daughter find her own way, despite her thinking that she knows better. Very convoluted relationship with her immature ex-husband. While David writes incredibly well as a female narrator, one of his unique and special skill sets, I still felt there wasn't the same depth of character development nor plot to please me.
July 1, 2022
I enjoyed this character study. It starts with a subtle recap of The Matter with Morris, which I appreciate as I remember liking it but not the details. Morris is in this story, but only as refracted through the thoughts and memories of his ex-wife, Lucille Black. She’s a psychiatrist, so despite the exotic locations, the main travelling is into the interior of her psyche, a “case study of a woman who had learned to analyze herself”; it felt a bit like being in a therapist’s chair. There is a plot, but it acts like interludes between Lucille’s internal dialogues. The writing is very good, Bergen deftly weaves the current action in and around those thoughts. At under 200 pages, it’s the perfect length.
November 3, 2023
Seems like the character is left to flounder in literary limbo. An interesting character who, like the book, failed to accomplish anything meaningful.
September 26, 2021
David Bergen is an author of many books I have enjoyed. Out of Mind which published earlier this month was no different.
Lucille, a psychoanalyst who is a mother to two grown daughters and a grandson, is travelling to France to attend the wedding of a younger man whom she had met at another wedding. She takes a detour to see her daughter in Pattaya. Libby is staying in a compound where the young women are influenced by a man named Shane. All the women wear a similar denim dress and have braids. If it sounds like a cult you would be correct. Lucille takes Libby to Phuket and on to one of the islands for a week. During this time she sees how her daughter has changed.
If you have read The Matter with Morris which was published in 2010 you will recognize some of the characters. Morris is Lucille’s ex-husband. Morris and Lucille’s son, a soldier, has been killed by friendly fire. This death has been devastating to the family. Morris has written a memoir about this experience which is handled in the previous book. This works perfectly well as a standalone.
Through Lucille’s characterization we explore her sexual and theoretical identity. Lucille is a free spirit who wants the same for her daughter. Underlying sexual tension pervades many of the scenes with Lucille and men she encounters.
The writing is clever, engaging and understated. If character driven novels are your thing then I encourage you to pick up this short and sweet book.
Lucille, a psychoanalyst who is a mother to two grown daughters and a grandson, is travelling to France to attend the wedding of a younger man whom she had met at another wedding. She takes a detour to see her daughter in Pattaya. Libby is staying in a compound where the young women are influenced by a man named Shane. All the women wear a similar denim dress and have braids. If it sounds like a cult you would be correct. Lucille takes Libby to Phuket and on to one of the islands for a week. During this time she sees how her daughter has changed.
If you have read The Matter with Morris which was published in 2010 you will recognize some of the characters. Morris is Lucille’s ex-husband. Morris and Lucille’s son, a soldier, has been killed by friendly fire. This death has been devastating to the family. Morris has written a memoir about this experience which is handled in the previous book. This works perfectly well as a standalone.
Through Lucille’s characterization we explore her sexual and theoretical identity. Lucille is a free spirit who wants the same for her daughter. Underlying sexual tension pervades many of the scenes with Lucille and men she encounters.
The writing is clever, engaging and understated. If character driven novels are your thing then I encourage you to pick up this short and sweet book.
May 29, 2024
Out of Mind by Winnipeg author David Bergen portrays the internal struggles of protagonist Lucille Black as she processes her family relationships and roles. Lucille battles conflicting emotions towards her daughter, Libby, who extended a year off school to travel and ended up falling in love with a cult leader in Thailand. At the same time, she is working through emotions that have haunted her since the death of her son in Afghanistan, her divorce and ex-husband’s second marriage to a woman closer in age to their daughters, and a romance she diverted years before.
I found David Bergen’s writing style as compelling as when I read one of his earlier works, The Time in Between. Bergen’s incisive and melancholic prose paints a poetic picture of the psychology of human experience. The story raises more questions than it gives answers, and for me, it dislodged a large file of stored memories around my struggles with letting go and the quest to find meaning and purpose in a complicated world.
I found David Bergen’s writing style as compelling as when I read one of his earlier works, The Time in Between. Bergen’s incisive and melancholic prose paints a poetic picture of the psychology of human experience. The story raises more questions than it gives answers, and for me, it dislodged a large file of stored memories around my struggles with letting go and the quest to find meaning and purpose in a complicated world.
May 2, 2022
The writing was fascinating enough to keep me actively intrigued and reading, and there was a sense of obliviousness from Lucille after every encounter. She talks in length about choice and attempts to sway Libby’s choices. She discusses cheating and her betrayal at how her ex-husband has a much younger wife after leaving her. She argues with Morris over the phone saying she was not cold and withdrawn and resented being portrayed that way instead of working out problems with him, regularly disconnects the phone.
One quote from the book sums up the story; "People listen to your story and then they connect it to their own story, and so now it is their story that becomes important, and the original story gets lost. No one wants to really know about my life, or your life, or someone else's life."
Short and sweet, contemplative and uncertain.
For the full review, check out my website at ablankpage.ca
One quote from the book sums up the story; "People listen to your story and then they connect it to their own story, and so now it is their story that becomes important, and the original story gets lost. No one wants to really know about my life, or your life, or someone else's life."
Short and sweet, contemplative and uncertain.
For the full review, check out my website at ablankpage.ca
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March 25, 2022From someone who isn't a psychiatrist, Bergen has gotten the attitude and the "talk" right down to a pat: you believe you are listening in on a conversation in a psychiatrist's office. Behind the scene, they too experience existential challenges: Lucille's challenges as a mother rung very true: the desire to connect with her daughter who is seemingly going down a dangerous path, yet the inability to recreate the warm link that existed between mother and daughter in spite of all her skills at mending relationships feels like a cold shower: if Lucille can't, what hope is there for the mere mortal mothers with daughters that suddenly turn a cold shoulder? Lucille's sexual pangs felt a bit contrive to me, particularly the last one recounted in the book in the gendarmerie.
This is an engaging book, perhaps of more appeal to an older readership than a younger one. I read it in 2 days.
This is an engaging book, perhaps of more appeal to an older readership than a younger one. I read it in 2 days.
April 19, 2023
A lovely read.
I've read one of Bergen's before - The Time In Between - which I enjoyed so I'm surprised I haven't sought out more of him before this.
The writing is lovely. The protagonist is a middle-aged woman from Canada, going to Thailand to see her daughter, then going to France for a wedding. All of that sounds ho-hum - however she reflects on her life, her decisions, her motivations as she makes her journey.
I don't generally like books where the a male is writing a female protagonist (or vice versa) but this one worked for me. Her introspection was thoughtful and accurate.
I'll search out more by this author.
I've read one of Bergen's before - The Time In Between - which I enjoyed so I'm surprised I haven't sought out more of him before this.
The writing is lovely. The protagonist is a middle-aged woman from Canada, going to Thailand to see her daughter, then going to France for a wedding. All of that sounds ho-hum - however she reflects on her life, her decisions, her motivations as she makes her journey.
I don't generally like books where the a male is writing a female protagonist (or vice versa) but this one worked for me. Her introspection was thoughtful and accurate.
I'll search out more by this author.
June 8, 2025
Without a strong background to say so, this is what good writing looks like to me. The sentences have been poured over to be just right. Characters are fleshed out through their emotional responses that, despite self awareness, propel them on their journeys to places unanticipated.
An investigation into identity, its essence and its superfisiality, that can be robbed from one and regained by experience.
In one paragraph, the power of choice, past past and present, is presented through repetion of the word in all tenses - choice, choose, chosen, chose.
For a slim novel we learn a lot about the human condition. There is much to ponder.
An investigation into identity, its essence and its superfisiality, that can be robbed from one and regained by experience.
In one paragraph, the power of choice, past past and present, is presented through repetion of the word in all tenses - choice, choose, chosen, chose.
For a slim novel we learn a lot about the human condition. There is much to ponder.
May 21, 2022
This book! Author Paige Cooper said ‘Bergen’s power as a writer pulls like an undertow.’ I could not say this more succinctly myself so I’ll quote Cooper instead! I couldn’t detect a single literary device in Out of Mind, yet rarely am I ever more engrossed in a novel as I was reading this one. The prose was straightforward, reminiscent of Hemingway, yet the narrative held such depth, I found myself enthralled. Bergen is now amongst my favourite authors, and I’m eager to read through his backlist.
October 15, 2024
A very psychological or contemplative book.... following the journey of Lucille. Lucille is dealing with grief and loss in numerous relationships, and Bergen leads us through her interactions and travels and memories deftly.
June 9, 2025
A very engaging depiction of a mother-daughter relationship, from the perspective of the over-analyzing therapist mother. Bergen seems to get inside her head, which is interesting for a male author. I'd be interested in what women think of his effort.
December 20, 2021
Character analysis at its best! I thoroughly enjoyed this quiet page turner.
May 8, 2022
David Bergen’s writing pulls you in from the beginning. I had previously read a collection of his short stories but this was the first novel I have read by him… and will not be the last!
October 8, 2022
3.5 Quick read. Good story. Wonder if I would have gotten more out of it if I had read it over a shorter time period.
April 26, 2023
4.5 stars.
November 8, 2023
A beautiful book. Very moving.
June 9, 2024
One of the most boring books I’ve read!
November 13, 2024
A pretty book; both cover and prose, but the characters were not relatable, nor likeable. If it was supposed to create an underlying sense of grief, it accomplished that.
September 14, 2025
Gentle, contemplative and wise in its observations about aging, loneliness, family and freedom.
September 15, 2021
I loved this book, I could say more but why?
January 17, 2022
"People listen to your story and then they connect it to their own story, and so now it is their story that becomes important, and the original story gets lost. No one wants to really know about my life, or your life, or someone else's life."
Lucille Black is caught in a kaleidoscope of love and life navigating her relations in midlife. She has been a wife, a grieving mother, a psychiatrist and a lover. While traveling to Thailand to save her daughter from a cult and then onto France for a friend's wedding, Lucille is brought face to face with humbling realizations. Through lucid reminiscing and rumination, David Bergen elegantly uncovers Lucille to reveal her layers of personality, motives and doubts.
"It is one thing to choose, and it is another to keep changing your mind. That is ambivalence. And ambivalence in marriage and in love is cruel."
Out of Mind is a wonderfully exquisite pensive piece of contemporary literary fiction from Dave Bergen. With the richness of many evocative and insightful moments, I was totally drawn in and overwhelmed by the simple beauty of the story and the depth of Lucille's character. And before I knew it, deeply immersed in Lucille's psyche, Out of Mind was over too soon and left me both craving more and well satisfied. David Bergen has illuminated some difficult realities of the human experience that not all writers navigate so delicately and magically. With restraint and beauty, Out of Mind is my first five-star fiction read of 2022.
"Loneliness again. Youth. Sadness and then happiness, and then more sadness and then more happiness. A strange peace."
Lucille Black is caught in a kaleidoscope of love and life navigating her relations in midlife. She has been a wife, a grieving mother, a psychiatrist and a lover. While traveling to Thailand to save her daughter from a cult and then onto France for a friend's wedding, Lucille is brought face to face with humbling realizations. Through lucid reminiscing and rumination, David Bergen elegantly uncovers Lucille to reveal her layers of personality, motives and doubts.
"It is one thing to choose, and it is another to keep changing your mind. That is ambivalence. And ambivalence in marriage and in love is cruel."
Out of Mind is a wonderfully exquisite pensive piece of contemporary literary fiction from Dave Bergen. With the richness of many evocative and insightful moments, I was totally drawn in and overwhelmed by the simple beauty of the story and the depth of Lucille's character. And before I knew it, deeply immersed in Lucille's psyche, Out of Mind was over too soon and left me both craving more and well satisfied. David Bergen has illuminated some difficult realities of the human experience that not all writers navigate so delicately and magically. With restraint and beauty, Out of Mind is my first five-star fiction read of 2022.
"Loneliness again. Youth. Sadness and then happiness, and then more sadness and then more happiness. A strange peace."
August 25, 2022
Loved every word of this book! I read The Matter with Morris which tells the story of Lucille’s ex husband. And now this brilliant story shares Lucille’s perspective on how to move forward after the death of their son and divorce. On the back cover there is a review that states “David Bergen is an exceptional writer, harnessing his prose, it’s restraint a sign of its great power”. Agree!
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