The Eighth Day of the Week

By Alfred Kessler

Fiction. Set in Brooklyn Heights, THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE WEEK is a novel of obsessive guilt and regret gnawing at the heart of a prominent doctor. The book is part mystery, part drama, a tale which unfolds to reveal such an immense depth of passion and fear within the doctor that one turns the pages with tremendous anticipation and tension, with a sense of trepidation, in fact. This is a book which makes you think about the nature of reality and relationships, the possible and the impossible, the bizarre manifestations of what we call love-- William Wharton.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929355009
• ISBN13: 9781929355006
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Pleasure Boat Studio
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A captivating mystery

This book is really a captivating mystery disguised as an artful novel. The main character, a doctor, has a mystery (or really, several), hidden in his past. As his story unfolds, we are riveted by the plot -- what is in his past? How did the action happen? I would call this book a "reverse mystery" -- the events happened in the past and are only now being revealed by the main player.The very fine writing makes unravelling this mystery a pleasure. I had to read the book all in one sitting because I couldn't wait to find out what had happened. I would recommend this most highly to anyone interested in an artfully told story.

EIGHTH DAY WORTH THE WAIT

THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE WEEK is an extraordinary first novel. Both my wife and I were mesmerized by its dark, barroom moodiness, its many poetic passages, and, of course, the mystery and intrique. The narrator, a doctor, tells his story, which we gradually realize is a confession,to a young woman in a bar. In a booth nearby, another woman watches and waits. We slowly gather clues about who this woman is, and what her relationship is to the younger woman who looks like her, or as she might have looked years ago. The story the doctor tells, in what has become a ritualized retelling, involves his wife, his troubled children, eventually his wife's lover, her child by him, and, as we slowly and painfully discover, an unimaginable, almost unpardonable sin. The air of mystery, and growing tension, between the story he tells and the barroom frame story in which the story/confession is told -- this is what kept us hooked from page one. In fact, it's almost impossible not to read the novel straight through. I recommend it to anyone who's interested in clear, expressive writing, and in the strange workings of memory, guilt, and loss -- and also love, how it weaves its delicate web to catch and hold us.