The Mask of Sanity

by Jacob M. Appel Narrated by Dennis Adams

Overview

On the outside, Dr. Jeremy Balint is a pillar of the community: the youngest division chief at his hospital, a model son to his elderly parents, fiercely devoted to his wife and two young daughters. On the inside, Dr. Jeremy Balint is a high-functioning sociopath--a man who truly believes himself to stand above the ethical norms of society. As long as life treats him well, Balint has no cause to harm others. When life treats him poorly, he reveals the depths of his cold-blooded depravity.

At a cultural moment when the media bombards us with images of so-called sociopaths who strive for good and criminals redeemed by repentance,The Mask of Sanity offers an antidote to implausible tales of evil gone right. In contrast to fictional predecessors like Dostoyevesky's Raskolnikov and Camus' Meursault, Dr. Balint is a man who already has it all --and will do everything in his power, no matter how immoral, to keep what he has.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

01/16/2017
Dr. Jeremy Balint, “the youngest head of any medical division at Laurendale-Methodist Hospital,” discovers his inner psychopath in Appel’s deeply unsettling novel set in what might be upstate New York. When Balint discovers that his wife, Amanda, is having an affair with his fellow doctor Warren Sugarman, he feels an overwhelming desire to murder Sugarman, and fulfilling this need soon consumes his otherwise normal life. As the wronged husband, Balint realizes that he’d be the logical suspect no matter how Sugarman dies—unless Sugarman appears to be the random target of a serial killer. So Balint sets out methodically murdering random strangers and tying lengths of green ribbon around their necks. Now known as the Emerald Choker, he takes no pleasure in the killings, but neither do they bother him. Each, after all, brings him closer to his goal of eliminating the detested Sugarman. Through matter-of-fact, nonjudgmental prose, Appel (The Biology of Luck) shows us the world through Balint’s eyes and leaves the reader with a horrifying understanding of his actions. (Mar.)

Kirkus Reviews

2017-02-21
This novel lays bare the mind of a sociopath whose accomplishments, normal life, and respected position disguise his true nature.At 34, cardiologist Jeremy Balint is the youngest head of any medical division at his hospital. Married and the father of two daughters, his princesses, whose welfare he values above all else, Balint is stunned to find evidence of his wife Amanda's infidelity with Warren Sugarman, a hospital colleague. Amanda handles every practical detail of household management on top of her nearly full-time job, and Balint doesn't know how to manage life without her. As an adult, he's always done right. Now, he realizes, "playing by the rules was for losers." If he could murder Sugarman without getting caught, he would—and why should an intelligent man like him get caught? Balint develops a careful plan, designed to ensure getting away with murder, that will entail multiple victims. To further settle the score, he pursues an affair with a beautiful nursing student. Over months, Balint makes his preparations, murders victims, and enjoys his affair. Meanwhile, his career—and his reputation as an ethical man—grows. He feels no guilt; after all, he's safeguarding his daughters' futures. But Balint's actions affect his marriage in a way he doesn't expect, and the novel ends with a hint that his mask has slipped. Appel (The Topless Widow of Herkimer Street, 2016, etc.), a physician, attorney, and bioethicist, avoids glamorizing his sociopath or wallowing in blood-bath crimes. Instead, this is a thoughtful, subtle dissection of how a certain kind of sociopath, found "in the highest echelons of power," operates. Perhaps what Appel does most interestingly is to show how Balint fails to understand himself or how others see him. He's astonished to learn that everyone at the hospital knows of his affair; he believes he loves his daughters, but it's clear they're only narcissistic extensions, "the guardians of his image after his death. Balint had "lived his entire adult life as an upstanding citizen"— but a horrifying event from his childhood reveals this line to be self-justifying spin. Intelligent and chilling.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173229342
Publisher:	Everand Productions
Publication date:	07/27/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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