BOOKMARK: The Therapist's New Clothes, The Broderick Curse, The Terrorist, The Legend of Cosmo & the Archangel

Written by

Seth Rogovoy

New releases written in or about the Berkshires

As a writer first and therapist second, Judith D. Schwartz of Bennington, Vt., is perfectly situated to explore the process of therapy and that of becoming a therapist, both of which she does in her memoir, The Therapist’s New Clothes, a tale that is at once gripping, heartfelt, intensely personal, and even somewhat comic. Schwartz finds in psychotherapy a very writerly narrative—a need to construct a well-wrought description of one’s life. And in her case, it comes replete with an O. Henry-style surprise ending. A terrific memoir for anyone interested in the therapeutic process, the drive to write, and/or the relationship between the two.

In The Broderick Curse, New York City mystery writer David Peretz returns to Ross Cortese, the city detective he first introduced in The Mosel Legacy. The book’s plot launches at the bottom of a lake near Great Barrington, Mass., where the skeleton of a driver is discovered seated behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz, and touches down in a few other well-known spots in the Berkshires, including Jacob’s Pillow and the Red Lion Inn, before spinning its characters and readers around the world in a whodunit conspiracy whirlwind.

Peter Steiner, of Sharon, Conn., follows up his previous thriller, L’Assassin, with The Terrorist, the third in a series featuring ex-CIA operative Louis Morgon, who left the agency in pursuit of peace and tranquility in the French countryside, but who keeps getting sucked back into international intrigue. This time around, Steiner—who is also a New Yorker cartoonist and was profiled in the May 2008 issue of Berkshire Living—has Morgon searching for a young Algerian friend who seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Don’t be put off by the title—there’s nothing at all new-agey about The Legend of Cosmo & The Archangel, an epic, grand novel by Pittsfield, Mass., native Joseph Kaufman, who studied literature at Bennington [Vt.] College with Bernard Malamud. Rather, the story traces the path of a group of best friends who grew up together in Pittsfield before scattering to all four corners of the earth. No matter how far they travel, however, they can’t seem to escape the bonds that were formed in friendship and love back home, and, through a dazzling array of journeys of the military, spiritual, religious, and psychological kind, they come to represent an entire generation of restless soul-seekers. Berkshirites will recognize many locations as well as the spirit of the community as it was back in the 1960s and ’70s. The Legend of Cosmo & The Archangel was a worthy finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. Kaufman, who lives in Israel, will be signing copies at the Bookstore in Lenox, Mass., on Wednesday, August 18, at 7. [AUGUST 2010]