PHARMAKON

Yale in the 1950s is home to William Friedrich, an assistant professor of psychology who teams up with a colleague to test a plant with antidepressant qualities. One of their test subjects is Casper Gedsic, a brilliant freshman with suicidal tendencies. When Gedsic goes on a homicidal rampage, Yale scraps the test, and Friedrich’s career in academia is profoundly affected. With few characterizations and little variation in intonation, Mark Deakins and Lincoln Hoppe narrate this semiautobiographical novel, told from the point of view of Friedrich's youngest son, born after Gedsic's murder spree. The narrators capture the emotional ups and downs of all the characters as they deal with life's disappointments. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2008]