The Adventures of Inspector Canal - Softcover

Fink, Bruce

2.76

50 ratings by Goodreads

9781855755321: The Adventures of Inspector Canal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1855755327 ISBN 13: 9781855755321

Publisher: Karnac Books, 2011

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Psychoanalysts make the best detectives! When it comes to divining motives, deciphering ambiguous pronouncements, detecting delusions, and foiling the tricks memory plays, famed French analyst Jacques Lacan―turned self-proclaimed retired Inspector Quesjac Canal―is second to none (apologies to Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin, and Umberto Eco's William of Baskerville).

Reluctantly drawn into helping hapless New York City police detectives with crimes reported by luminaries like Rolland Saalem, music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and involving prominent personages like Tobias Trickler, Mayor of New York City, and Sandra Errand, vice president for North American sales at YVEH Distributors of Spirits, Canal solves cases that are anything but what they appear to be and mends tears of the heart and soul at the same time.

The Adventures of Inspector Canal includes three intrigues that weave together psychoanalytic themes, historical mysteries, and contemporary issues in a unique manner.

In “The Case of the Lost Object,” the conductor of the New York Philharmonic becomes obsessed about the theft from his Lincoln Center office of the slow movement from a precious original musical score.

In “The Case of the Pirated Formula,” a hard-charging businesswoman is determined to stop a Chinese counterfeit version of the famous green Chartreuse liqueur her company distributes from flooding the American market.

Finally, in “The Case of the Liquidity Squeeze,” the sex life of the beloved mayor of New York City becomes fodder for public consumption and derision when he is accused of paying for his visits to a so-called massage parlor from public coffers. The psychoanalytic themes of love, desire, and loss intertwine as important relationships develop between Canal and those he assists.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Bruce Fink is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor. He trained as a psychoanalyst in France for seven years with and is now a member of the psychoanalytic institute Jacques Lacan created shortly before his death, the �cole de la Cause freudienne in Paris, and obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII (Saint-Denis). He served as Professor of Psychology from 1993 to 2013 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is currently an affiliated member of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. He is the author of six books on Lacan, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique, Lacan to the Letter: Reading �crits Closely, Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique: A Lacanian Approach for Practitioners, and Against Understanding: Commentary, Cases, and Critique in a Lacanian Key, 2 volumes. Fink is also a translator of Lacan's work into English. His translation of Seminar XX, Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, was published in 1998, and his translation of Lacan's magum opus �crits: The First Complete Edition in English came out in 2006; the latter was awarded the 2007 nonfiction translation prize by the French-American Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation.

Review:

"Inspector Canal's missing score wins highest marks on my music stand. Fink gives us here a novel with a witty tempo, combining suspense and intelligent entertainment that are bubbly, light, and tasty-not just like Perrier but with the kind of good taste only French Champagne can deliver. This is the work of a great maestro conducting sophisticated characters with psychological mastery. The reader can only clap enthusiastically and cry "Encore!"" (Luz Manr�quez 2010-01-01)

"Edgar Allan Poe may be the founder of the modern detective genre, but he is also the creator of the most famous French detective begotten by American writers' imagination: the Chevalier Auguste Dupin. Like Dupin, Bruce Fink's Quesjac Canal, who lives in an enclave of extreme refinement, where upper-class tastefulness reigns, comes to the rescue of perplexed local inspectors. His approach to solving mysteries is an interesting combination of psychoanalysis (he spontaneously analyzes anyone with whom he comes into contact), flirtatiousness, and reliance on the curative effects of gastronomy. Who could object?" (Pierre Verdaguer 2010-01-01)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.