SOURCE: Post, Chad W. Review of Blake's Therapy, by Ariel Dorfman. Review of Contemporary Fiction 2, no. 3 (fall 2001): 203.

In the following review, Post contends that Dorfman constructs a playful and effective narrative in Blake's Therapy and notes that the novel solidifies “Dorfman's place within the grand tradition of experimental Latin American novelists.”

Most of Ariel Dorfman's work to date has addressed the detrimental effects of dictatorships upon the body and mind (Hard Rain, Konfidenz, Death and the Maiden), but in his newest novel, he leaves Latin American politics behind to explore the corruptive power of corporate culture. The premise of Blake's Therapy is simple enough: Graham Blake, the marketing mastermind behind Clean Earth Inc., is suffering from chronic insomnia, forcing him to check into a radical psychological institute designed to treat wealthy businessmen. Blake's therapy resembles an insane “reality TV” show—he is assigned a family that he can...