Raw yet gripping exploration of mental illness.
In this debut novel, Harry Taylor recounts his mistaken marriage to a schizophrenic, detailing her “Voice” and mercenary, mentally unstable family.
Harry, who was in between college and law school in 1969, met younger Terri through a cousin and married her in his middle age. She admitted to having mental issues, but Harry was assured by her doctor that these were controlled by medication; thus, as expressed in the novel’s first chapter heading, “The Prognosis Is Good.” Harry soon found out this was a misdiagnosis, since Terri became hostile about having sex, intensely concerned about his money, and, worst of all, obsessive in her desire to kill her parents, particularly her mother, from whom she likely inherited her mental illness. Harry began to realize that Terri was in full sway to what she described as her “Voice.” His first-person account provides a picture of what these racing thoughts were like and how he initially wanted to help Terri but soon felt helpless and then resolved upon divorce. He ended up battling Terri’s parents in court proceedings since they had welcomed him taking over Terri’s medical costs and pushed for a big settlement. He finally extricated himself but is now lonely and shell-shocked by the experience. Terri and her family met even more tragic ends. Author Malady seems very likely to be a pseudonym for someone who has confronted similar circumstances. Regardless, the author captures the horror and pain of such a predicament. The “Voice” chapters are particularly striking, engendering surprising sympathy for the troublesome Terri. The narrative is undercut a bit by its rambling style, which has some digressive and seemingly nonchronological sequences, as well as its dwelling on money grievances; both issues dilute the work’s larger, more important discussion about handling mental illness. Still, this account offers plenty of fascinating documentarylike moments, not least of which is the author’s intriguing assertion that “the source of religious inspiration might be mental illness.”
Raw yet gripping exploration of mental illness.Pub Date: March 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1507650523
Page Count: 110
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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