"By turns tantalizing, chilling, spellbinding...an icy dissection of how men and women can drive each other completely berserk."—Carolyn See
Not since D. M. Thomas's bestseller
The White Hotel
has there been such a remarkable novel about women, hysteria, and the profession of psychiatry as practiced by men. Set in California and Mexico in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
A Version of Love
is a bizarrely riveting tale of transgressive desire. Its lead players form a precarious triangle: a psychoanalyst who sleeps with his patient; a female "hysteric" on the verge of being cured; and a loner in the Sierra foothills who goes panning for gold and then love. "A dazzling achievement" (Robert Olen Butler), "a work of almost spookily controlled intelligence,"
is a breakthrough novel by Millicent Dillon, who "deserves to be honored as an American master of fiction" (Philip Lopate). "A brilliant new novel. The assurance and economy with which she gives us this strangely gripping and powerful story...are the hallmarks of a consummate artist....Her finest work yet."—Diane Johnson