Helene and Paul presents a fascinating South Beach experiment in unconditional love between Paul, an impoverished author who lives in a squalid hovel, and Helene, the matriarch of a prominent family. They are friends in the etymological sense of 'friend,' that is, their relationship is rooted in 'freedom,.' but they seem otherwise hopelessly mismatched. We might deem Helene, raised strictly in an ostensibly good home, a narcissistic female, yet in doing so we will hopefully gain some insight into our own nature as individuals regardless of our gender. Both of our protagonists, by the way, have taken the Narcissist Personality Inventory. Paul scored 16 of 40, about the average level of narcissism, while Helene scored 17. Both claim others are narcissists, identifying some of them as "malignant" narcissists. This gives us cause to wonder because both know enough about narcissism to get an average result from the 40 questions and make fools out of the authors of such tests. However that may be, Helene and Paul proves the old adage true, that there is somebody for everybody to love, and demonstrates that unconditional love is not always self-destructive and evil. Quite to the contrary in this fascinating characterological study.
