Brief

George fantasizes about killing his wife, despite her love for him, and goes to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist accidentally introduces George to another of his patients, the mafia boss Carmine Birsamatto. George and Carmine devise plans to use each other, but those plans get interrupted when George faces a serious injury.

What We Liked

This is a beautiful exploration about possible past lives and afterlives as well as a critique of toxic masculinity that instead embraces the emotions and human needs of men that are often ignored by traditional media.

Film: As a film, this would be a heartwarming drama focused on the three men and how connecting with these past lives helps them.

TV: As a television show, this could be either a serial exploring the lives illustrated in the novel, or even a procedural showing different people living out their different past lives.

Key points: Unique premise; Multiple lead characters; Mafia drama; Medical drama; Interiority

Synopsis

George Dingfelder is a physician who goes to see Dr. Jonathan Hokmah for counseling. George confesses that his only solace in life comes from fantasizing about murdering his wife--he has begun to get closer with his younger brother, an auto mechanic, in the hopes that he will learn of a way to mess with her vehicle in a method that kills her but makes him look innocent. George's main issues with his wife are all petty--she is not cheating on him or cruel to him, but she leaves lights on and doesn't keep the house clean enough. In the waiting room of Dr. Hokmah, George meets Carmine Birsamatto, a notorious Mafia don. Carmine asks George for his card, saying he has a professional need for a physician. George gets excited over the prospect of having a professional assist him in getting rid of his wife and assumes that the reason Carmine wants him to look over Carmine's wife's medical records is because Carmine wants to kill his wife as well.

George meets with Carmine and tells him that he has figured out Carmine's plan to off his wife, and is willing to help as long as Carmine helps George kill his wife. Carmine agrees, and suggests that the two men and their wives go away to an inn in Vermont for the weekend. The second George leaves, Carmine reveals that he has been recording George all along, and that, he has no plans to kill his own wife, and instead wants to use the recording to blackmail George into helping Carmine arrange and HMO fraud. Hokmah goes to an APA conference and, as the President, gives a heartfelt speech that turns many of his supporters off. He meets Inge, another psychologist, and is fascinated with her perspective. He tries to ask her for her advice regarding his patient, George, and she pressures him instead into seeing a panel led by the psychologist Dr. Weiss. Hokmah thinks that Dr. Weiss is nonsensical, but agrees, and attends the seminar. Dr. Weiss leads everyone in a guided meditation that causes Hokmah to experience life as a young boy--Danny Hoffman. Danny Hoffman, a senior in high school in 1954, is struggling with depression after discovering his father's charred body in a fire. Danny is an aspiring journalist and writes an article for his school paper about high school students and sexuality that leads to a full investigation in which the high school gym teacher comes out as gay and retires. The gym teacher commits suicide and leaves Danny a note expressing that it had nothing to do with him and it wasn't his fault, but Danny, already depressed, takes the blame upon himself and shoots himself in the head with a rifle while standing over his father's grave. Hokmah comes back to reality after experiencing everything in Danny's life, only to find himself sobbing and surrounded by Dr. Weiss and inge. Hokmah now fully believes in Dr. Weiss's teachings and is excited to bring back the ideas of other lives and living past lives to his patients.

While George is preparing for his getaway with Carmine and their wives, he has an accident and falls off a ladder, cracking his head open. He survives but is in a coma and struggles for weeks to regain consciousness and motor function. Carmine is supportive and arranges for George to get all the best medical care. George fully awakes, but with severe amnesia. Carmine and George and their wives spend a lot of time together, at first Carmine just wants to make sure that George doesn't remember their previous business, but after a while, he begins to grow fond of George and his family. While at a baseball game with Carmine and their families, George gets hit in the head with a foul ball. The incident helps bring his memory back. George and Carmine meet up with Hokmah, who leads them in a meditation similar to Weiss's. Both George and Carmine experience past lives just as Hokmah did. George meets with Carmine and tells him that he has no plans now to kill his wife, but will not do anything to endanger Carmine legally. George goes away with his wife and falls in love with her all over again, and then confesses his original fantasies of murdering her. Honey is rightfully outraged and leaves George. George tries to win her back, and Carmine tries to help him, only for the FBI to arrest George in an effort to get to Carmine. The FBI is unable to maintain a case against George or Carmine and both men are set free.

About The Author

Dr. Bernie Siegel retired from practice as an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Yale of general and pediatric surgery in 1989 to speak to patients and their caregivers. He has written over five books, including one with his grandson.