AAR receives general fiction from publishers fairly often, usually because it has some sort of romantic element – and would therefore appeal to the lucrative romance reader market. I can’t help wondering how much cross-over there really is, and whether romance readers actually seek out straight fiction that just happens to include a romantic relationship as part of the plot. My sense is that they don’t, and that those who read fiction do so because they like non-genre fiction for its own merits – not because it kinda sorta has romance elements sometimes. Anyone who reads it for that reason is bound to feel like they are getting a consolation prize. With that said, I personally am a sucker for the word “fairytale.” If someone tells me a story has fairytale elements, I am inclined to go out of my way to give it a try. Such was the case with The Map of True Places, a book I enjoyed – but not, it turns out, because it was either a romance or a fairytale.

Zee Finch is a psychotherapist who works with Dr. Mattei, a world-renowned and widely published psychotherapist. When a patient named Lilly commits suicide, several things seem to go wrong simultaneously. Zee doubts her abilities as a therapist, and thinks some of her mistakes caused the suicide. She also finds out that her father, who suffers from Parkinson’s, has taken a turn for the worse. And to put the icing on the cake, her relationship with her fiancé completely unravels. Zee takes a leave of absence so that she can care for her father, and in the process she finds herself revisiting her past.

One of the reasons that Zee is so upset by her Lilly’s suicide is that Lilly, like Zee’s mother Maureen, was bi-polar. Maureen was a writer with a troubled life who also committed suicide – in a very dramatic and painful way. The “fairytale” portion of the book comes from Maureen, who wrote fairytale-like stories, including one about the Salem house where Zee grew up and her father now lives. Part of Maureen’s mental drama was a belief in past lives and an almost-supernatural connection to her living space.

The story also explores Dr. Finch’s relationship with his long-time partner, Melville. Before his health deteriorated, Finch was a well-known literature professor who studied Nathaniel Hawthorne. The house in Salem is actually within sight of the famous House of Seven Gables. Part of Finch’s slide into dementia includes a delusion that he actually is Hawthorne. He also throws Melville out of the hosue, for reasons no one can understand.

There’s a lot more going on here, and all of it ties together in some fashion by the end. This includes, but is not limited to: Maureen’s brother, a pirate re-enactor, who has a crush on Maureen’s best friend. A (new) romantic relationship for Zee with a guy who has mysterious connections to her, and a dangerous man from Lilly’s past who wants revenge.

Over all, Barry does a great job of balancing all these elements. There is a lot going on, but I was interested in all of it. The plotting is skillfully done, and everything comes together in the end in a way that is surprisingly believable, right down to the proverbial gun on the wall in the third act (you know, the one that goes off in the fifth?) which is, in this case, a container full of strychnine. If you like your fiction full of intricate plotting, this is your book.

The characterization is good too. It’s not book I’d describe as heart-warming; the characters are more “interesting” than they are warm and fuzzy. Zee is a prickly protagonist, but that doesn’t stop her from being sympathetic. And though most of the story is told from Zee’s point of view, the reader gets ample insight into the motivation and lives of the other characters as well. I particularly liked Melville, who is steadfast in his love for Finch.

But I think to enjoy A Map of True Places, you really need to enjoy and appreciate fiction in its own right. This isn’t a book I would read for the romantic relationships. Actually, it’s a little reminiscent of Chris Bohjalian’s The Double Bind; it has a similar literary/mystery/fiction quality. If you like that kind of thing and are willing to wander away from romance now and then, you may well find this book worth your time.