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by Stephen O'Connor
A German psychoanalyst, his Jewish wife, and their young daughter are swept up in the rising tide of fascism.
Günter Zeitz, psychoanalyst-in-training and the son of a Catholic country doctor, and Josine Rosen, Sigmund Freud's patient and the daughter of a Jewish shipping magnate, first meet in 1924, in Freud's Viennese waiting room. As their intense affair develops, Freud arranges for Günter's appointment to the newly created Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Shortly after the move, their daughter Hannah is born. But less than a decade later, all their hopes and ideals are profoundly challenged by political realities so horrific that they are, initially, beyond comprehension.
A heartrending story of love in a time of hatred, an absorbing investigation into the Nazis' exploitation of psychoanalysis, and a cautionary tale about self-deception and the failures of a people to recognize the lies of their charismatic leader, We Want So Much to Be Ourselves examines the ways science can be corrupted and one's very identity transformed by historical circumstance.
"This is the story of psychoanalysis from its Freudian beginnings through its precarious existence under the Nazi regime to its trendy modernization after the war. It is also the haunting tale of one man's journey through the 20th century from horror to hopefulness." —Library Journal
"Marked by passion, love, anger, loss, fear, terror, and madness...[A] rich novel." —Historical Novels Review
"We Want So Much to Be Ourselves is a vivid, sorrowing novel about the power of ideas. As Nazi ideology rises, the story conveys the compromises and sacrifices of a decent man faced with the impossible. It does what Stephen O'Connor has long done in his work—trace the interior path of moral trouble, with all its inherent suspense. A really superb book." —Joan Silber, author of Improvement and Mercy
"In beautiful, unsentimental prose, this gripping novel asks, Who is complicit in times of evil? Who resists? And how can ordinary life and love carry on in the face of madness? A fraught love affair and the omnipresent threat of violence make this a tense and propulsive story. Rich in fascinating historical detail, ideas, and psychological insight, O'Connor's story brims with compassion, and sounds a warning siren." —Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life and Gilded Mountain
This information about We Want So Much to Be Ourselves was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stephen O'Connor is the author of seven books, including two novels: We Want So Much to Be Ourselves, (forthcoming from Bellevue Press) and Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings; two short story collections: Here Comes Another Lesson and Rescue; Quasimode, a collection of poetry; Will My Name Be Shouted Out?, a memoir of his eight years teaching in a New York City public school, and Orphan Trains, a history of a controversial nineteenth century child welfare effort. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Best American Short Stories, and many other places. His story, "Ziggurat," was read by Tim Curry on Selected Shorts. His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Conjunctions, The Beloit Poetry Journal, and elsewhere, and his nonfiction has been in the New York Times, The Nation, Agni, and The Boston Globe. He teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence and lives in New York City.
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