Something New

  We feature each fortnight Nicholas Reid's reviews and comments on new and recent books.   

“EMPATHY” by BRYAN WALPERT (Makaro Press, $40)

I have a big problem when I come to Bryan Walpert’s excellent novel. I read and enjoyed Empathy when I was holidaying in Australia, but when I got back to New Zealand I found that I was well behind the pack. Every N.Z. book-reviewer had said what they thought of Empathy, and I was almost at a loss to say anything new. For that reason I will be relatively brief.

 First a synopsis. David Geller is a widower looking after his teenage son Finn and his teenage daughter Gemma. They are bright kids. David is a high-school teacher, teaching science. His father Edward, also a widower, lives with the family. He is a professor dealing especially with chemicals. Edward has gone missing. It seems he is either lost or has been kidnapped, but when David makes enquiries nobody can say where he is – not even the laboratory where Edward works. But in a flashback, we are told that Edward was working on making perfumes. Edward notes: “Olfaction is chemical… The olfactory system is linked to limbic and paralimbic structures. What that means is that smell affects emotions. Empathy has a cognitive side – that is, understanding how someone feels – manifested in what is called the ‘theory of mind’, the ability to imagine what another person might be experiencing and thinking. But scents engage instead the emotional side of empathy – a sense of co-experiencing the feelings of others. Other studies suggest that the link between odour and empathy arises from common neural pathways that involved the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex and the madiodorsel thalamus. Smell through the right nostril correlated better with empathy than through the left.” [p.93] So what is empathy? Usually it means understanding, or trying to understand, how other people feel; and wishing to help them. But Edward realises he has created a perfume that could cause harm…. And then he has gone missing.

But this is only part of the dramatis personae. Alison Morris is working for a company, looking for  a new perfume… she has heard of Edward’s findings. Alison’s partner is Jim. Jim and his buddy Eli are into gaming. They are working on a video game called EmPath. Unlike other video games, this one does not revel in violence, but encourages players to negotiate with people in a peaceful way. At first Jim and Eli seem to be on to something and ready to make a fortune… but the game becomes unpopular, Jim’s supposed buddy Eli has done a bunk and Jim is left bankrupt as he cannot pay all the people who had funded his work.  To the close reader, this is an early warning that some people only claim to be empathetic – or that one can be easily be taken in by a smooth talker. Alison sees she and Jim really need money. Alison thinks more about the missing Edward’s findings. She wonders if there is any way she can benefit from them. She is able to find a vial of Edward’s latest perfume, realising that it is dangerous. But more sinister people are interested in the potion. Yes, there are more characters in the novel and yes, there are more twists, some dealing with real violence, but my code is firm: Do not give away all the twists and surprises in a new novel that the author had planned.

If we think this sounds merely a thriller, we are wrong. What makes this novel really sophisticated is Walpert’s being able to present what could be called a thriller, but he has the nous to also deal with real issues – one being the whole idea of empathy itself, and the misuse of science. Here members of corporations jockey for prestige,  often ignoring what is good for the public. What happens to be fashionable is not necessarily good  Consumers are sold supposed novelties as “new” when they rarely are… and when it comes to perfumes, they are concocted in a brew of many drugs of which the public is not aware.

I have only one small quibble with Empathy. After some violence, I think the denouement is a little glib – too easy perhaps. But that is a small matter.  Over the last twelve months I have written about the three best novels to come out of New Zealand. They are Catherine Chidgey’s The Book of Guilt, Becky Manawatu’s Kataraina, and now Bryan Walpert’s Empathy . Walpert’s  novel is informed by science, understands how science can be misused, knows the stresses families go through, and sees the limitations of empathy itself. Certainly a book for grown-ups