Kohler's novel originated as a short story and was included in the 1988 collection of O. Henry awards. In its shorter version, I am sure this psychological drama was outstanding, but as a novel the story is stretched too thin.
Kohler should have kept her work in a shorter form, because her writing at times is lovely. The central character, who is as obsessed with places as she is careless towards people, describes the countryside of the three nations beautifully. With her focus on light, the landscapes are drawn like Impressionist paintings.
In the mountains, before tedium sets in for the reader, the woman paints Switzerland as only a privileged old woman could:
The people are courteous, of course, but frightfully dull, and the whole place has always looked somehow "preserved" to me, rather like pickles in a jar. And too many cows, I always say, there are just far too many cows.
And in Italy, as the narrator approaches her final revelation, the light darkens:
The sky was still blue, but the land had caught the shadow, and the sea looked almost dark. Dark shadows blackened the water, and the lights of the harbor were lit and shimmered on the surface of the sea like oil. All the substance began to run from the colors; finally, only the black of the shadows and the white of the lights remained.
BUT the wonderful sense of place and the narrator's eye for details soon become monotonous. The affair the woman has with one of her teachers, and even her borderline incestuous relationship with her mother, are described so coldly, so myopically that it is difficult for the reader to understand or sympathize.
The author, it seems, has made the same mistakes of her central character--she has detached the novel from any kind of explicit emotion so much that the drama is buried, and the reader feels her character is almost irrelevant.
The game with the dog depends on the stupidity of the animal and also its desire for the reward. In The Perfect Place, the reader is too smart to waste the time, and the reward--the final story--is so unworthy that it is unlikely many readers will continue to play the game for long.
Unfortunately, Kohler's writing skill is lost in the game.