I don’t actually know if Walter Freeman II said, as Inigo Montoya did in The Princess Bride,“I’m going to do him left-handed.”, but that evangelist for the transorbital lobotomy did “get bored doing things right-handed so he would switch off in mid-operation and start doing things left-handed.”

The neurologist Walter Freeman in Singer’s novel never says it, but this lightly fictionalized version,like the real Dr. Freeman, travelled the country in a Lobotimobile sometimes doing hundreds of lobotomies a week in the 1950s. Freeman’s innovation was fast and efficient – at least in destroying the targeted brain tissues if not in achieving the desired effects. “Freeman would peel back each eyelid, insert his ice pick and with a hammer tap through the brain, wiggle it about, sever the frontal lobes, withdraw it," as a PBS documentary described it.

Eventually Freeman could do the old “pop and scramble” with an orbitoclast in each hand to double his processing time. No anesthesia. No antiseptic.

It’s pretty heady stuff for the “lad”, the narrator of Singer’s novel and Dr. Freeman’s assistant, and he gives himself no other name. He’s 20 years old but already has been working in the soul destroying mental hospitals of the time. Alcohol isn’t taking the edge off as much as needed.

But, at least for awhile, Freeman is his hero. Saving lives, taming monsters, restoring hope and peace to the families of the afflicted.

But, after watching Freeman lobotomize a 12 year-old, he’s had enough. The two part ways. Thirteen years later, in 1968, Freeman has fallen into disrepute. The lad, again working as an orderly in a mental hospital, meets Dr. Williams, a fan of Freeman.

Williams has a disturbing theory. Doctors associated with Freeman are being murdered. Williams and the kid visit Freeman's old cases and hear of a Dr. Hollow, perhaps real, perhaps a hallucination, who may have something to do with the deaths -- if the are, in fact, murders.

Singer tells his story efficiently, voices the characters distinctly, especially the interchanges between Freeman and the kid who has his own problems like an addiction to Freeman’s chemical competitor Thorazine.

However, for me, the story started to wobble at the climax with 1960s-type society-is-crazy-and-needs-to-be-destroyed, damn-categories-and-boundaries-and-nuance nihilism. Singer recovered my sympathies with the end though I suspect I just chose to ignore the intended irony.

Still, it’s a gripping read, a non-supernatural horror story that latches itself on to the history of the real Dr. Freeman. ( )

The first part of this book captivated me, which is the reason I have given it three and a half stars. The exploration of Walter Freeman through the eyes of his assistant is a brilliant concept, however as the book progressed it did not hold my attention as much as it had in the beginning. While most books become more and more captivating, addicting even, as it progresses, while Transorbital was good, it did not. It was well written, and overall a good book, but not excellent. In fact, while I had hoped it would be more entertaining than true stories of Walter Freeman's escapades, I found myself more interested with googling actual Walter Freeman stories than this book. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I hoped that I would be interested more in this book than I actually was.

Thus, while I didn't not enjoy reading it, I don't know whether I would recommend this book to my friends. ( )

Engaging book. Easy to read writing style, very enjoyable. I learned a lot about the title subject and there was a lot of attention to period details and character development. Intense subject matter and a well spun yarn. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It had a very compelling, unique story that drew me in right away and it didn't let up, and then it surprised me at the end. So satisfying! ( )

Walter Freeman performs lobotomies with an icepick, inserting into a persons eyesocket, then damaging the tissue in ones frontal lobe, rendering the recipient docile and nonviolent. He does this with relish, as often as he can, on patients of all ages, in his believe that the transorbital lobotomy is the future of treating violent psychiatric pathology.
Dr Freemans assistant, who is the narrator, but never refers to himself by name, is a former orderly from many mental institutions, where he's made a habit of copying the master keys. He comes from a poor, post WWII background, and has issues with drugs and alcohol.
Dr Freemans methods are opposed by the medical establishment who prefer the use of medications, most notably Thorazine which is experimental at the time of the narrative.
Over a period of years fellow practitioners begin to die under suspicious circumstances. Dr Freemans assistant suspects a former patient may be taking revenge and investigate. He himself is addicted to Thorazine, which Freeman encouraged him to evaluate.
This story is gruesome, yet funny in places. A parable on the futility, ego, ambition, and experimenting with things we don't fully understand. If you're squeamish, and find descriptions of anatomical violence abhorrent, I wouldn't recommend this. I though the writing was fine and the story excellent, but its novella length kind of left me wanting. ( )