Review:
THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING by Thomas H. Cook
Review by Gloria Feit
This psychological thriller recounts the hereditary effects of mental illness. A brother and sister grow up in the shadow of their schizophrenic father. The sister, Diana, is blessed with a photographic memory and shines in front of the parent, spewing quotations at the drop of a hat. She was on a full scholarship at Yale when she left in her senior year to take care of the father, who was institutionalized at least twice. She marries shortly after the death of the father and soon gives birth to a son. The brother, David, becomes an attorney, with a fairly commonplace practice, handling “dissolutions”: marriages and businesses.
Diana goes shopping one day, only to find on her return that her son, who was at home at the time with her husband, wandered off to a pond and drowned. She becomes obsessed, convinced her husband murdered the boy, who also was mentally disturbed, because he was a “distraction.” [None of the foregoing constitutes a spoiler ˆ it all takes place very early in the book.]
David and his daughter become entwined in Diana‚s preoccupation. He doesn‚t know what to believe. Is she suffering from the family‚s history of mental aberration˜or could there be some truth to what she says?
The novel is constructed in an interesting fashion, with introductory chapters during which the brother is being interrogated by a detective before the story is told. It is an interesting technique, as is the plot itself, and the book is recommended.