Atmospheric Disturbances is a strange and entertaining first novel by Rivka Galchen, published in 2008. The quirky narrator is a 51-year-old psychiatrist named Leo Leibenstein. Leo wakes up one morning convinced that his young, attractive Argentine wife, Rema, has been "replaced" by a simulacrum. The bizarre premise gets even weirder as he searches for outside sources of the "disappearance", refusing to take credit for his "Rema-psychosis". He centers on a quasi-scientific organization called the Royal Meteorological Academy and in particular, a staff member there named Tzvi Gal-Chen. He "uses" "clues" he finds in Gal-Chen's technical writing to help him as he sets out on a journey to find the "real" Rema. The story is strange and frequently very funny as it examines the interplay between reality and perception, the real and simulacrum.
For a review of the book by the NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/books/review/Schillinger-t.html?ref=books&_r=0
For a review of the book by the NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/books/review/Schillinger-t.html?ref=books&_r=0
