Memory’s Eyes
A New York Oedipus Novel
By Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau

Click Here to Read: A Review of The Distance from Home by Daniel Jacobs  by Barbara Stimmel  and Memory’s Eyes by Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau  in The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association Volume 71 issue 1. pp. 141-149.

MEMORY’S EYES is a contemporary New York Oedipus novel. It is written for readers who enjoy playing with concepts and storylines, here namely the classical Oedipus myth, Sophocles’ three Theban plays, the psychoanalytical concept of the Oedipus complex, and its pop-cultural adaptations in cartoons and jokes. Consequently, this novel is meant to be tragic and funny, playful, but also uncomfortable. Even though the Prologue reminds readers of the myth’s characters and destinies, they will find themselves simultaneously knowing and not knowing, anticipating and still being surprised about how the truth slowly unfolds.

From the beginning:

So this is my story: My father, Edward O. Stark, or just Eddie, as everybody calls him, comes to New York one ordinary afternoon with a small bag in one hand and a street and subway map in the other, comes in by train from Philadelphia, where he had lived with his Aunt Margret in her fine apartment for as long as he could remember, and gets out, finally, at Grand Central Station. Now here he is in the middle of a totally amazing moment: new and free. He looks around. What an energetic crowd of people, he thinks, racing and zipping back and forth between trains and stairways and all the blinking and sparkling showcases in this huge hall of Grand Central Station—Grand Central Station!—and everybody’s calling, chatting, yelling and laughing, and all so useful, earnest and determined like Eddie himself hasn’t felt in a long while if ever… This is it, he thinks, watching a group of seven impressive men in dark suits with black briefcases hanging strap-wise and neatly polished from their shoulders, energetically hurrying ahead, just cutting his way and already gone, devoured at once by the bubbling, scurrying hell of the crowd. Yes, instantaneously he knows, this is my City, this is where I want to be! He has a bit of money in his bank account, his inheritance from Aunt Margret, not much, but enough to comfortably risk a new start and move into a B&B or a cheap hotel for as long as it will take to find a more decent place to stay, a place where he has his own bed and fridge and can do his own laundry.

My father said that he loved New York at first sight, and strangely enough, he had this distinct feeling that he belonged here. He wasn’t naïve. As protected as his small world had been up to this point, he always was a smart observer and somehow knew about the difficulties of settling in a new place. His habit was to scan things carefully, and only then decide. So I see him leaning against a big post next to a coffee shop, looking around. What now, he wonders. The total freedom of choice intimidates him in its enormity. Every step he will take from here can easily lead his life in a different direction, and there is no way to foresee the consequences or to make a reasonable decision. On the other hand, this is the adventure of life! Eddie has finally arrived in New York!

The author:

Cordelia  Schmidt-Hellerau is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the Chair of the IPA in Culture Committee. She has written about theoretical, clinical and applied psychoanalysis. Her recent book by IPBooks, Driven to Survive, was a finalist of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize. She published her first novel, Rousseaus Traum, in German. Memory’s Eyes, written in English, is her second novel. She works in private practice in Chestnut Hill by Boston.